Reunited Again
by Gamemaster2112
Summary: When Yuna and the Gullwings finally get rid of the mystory of Vegnagun, the people of Spira are still being over run by a hord of fiends. What is going on?


(I've been lying here for almost six days now. Trying to find a way to see you again…no matter how hard I try or what I think of to do…nothing…every works.)

Yuna wakes up and notices that it was yet another dream. (Why? Why can't I leave you in the past?) she asks herself as she gets up. Before she could leave her room Rikku comes in and jumps up and down.

"Yunie listen, Raiden is going to do a reading for you."

"What?!" she says looking alarmed. "No. I…I didn't ask for this." she says.

"Don't worry. We took the liberty of asking him to do so. Plus…he insists that you come and talk with him. I think it's time you left you-know-who back in the past. This guy is really nice. You said so yourself. So why not just go ahead and marry him?"

"I don't want to talk to him. Why did you do that Rikku."

She looks away hurt.

"Well…he suggested it. So don't get mad at me." she jumps on the bed and grins. "You know that he likes you. Why front with it?"

"Because. We have different intentions. I do not wish to begin another teaching of Yevon. He does. He wants to start another teaching. The first one brought on Sin. Who knows what another might bring. " she says dressing in her gunner uniform. 

"Still it would be bad to leave him hanging. Don't you think?"

"No I don't. I really don't like him."

"Rise and shine sleepy head." says a calm low voice. 

Rikku stares as Yuna's face lights up.

"I'm wide awake." she says throwing her arms up in cheer.

Jin smiles as he comes in and sits down in a wooden chair. 

"Rats." he says snapping his finger. "I got here too late."

Yuna looks confused.

"Too late?" Rikku says.

"Yeah…I meant to get here BEFORE you used the dress-sphere."

They laugh and get ready to eat at the bar. 

(Jin is a very kind person. He makes everyone laugh and he's also a very nice person. It's as if he has the spirit of him. Or perhaps maybe it's his own spirit. Maybe I shouldn't think about him…about…the past.)

"Wait…" Jin says smiling.

Rikku's cup stops at her bottom lip as she looks over to him. 

"I know there was three of you beauties lying around here. Where's the other one?"

"Huh?" Yuna says looking around to Brother and Buddy. "Who are you talking about?"

Shinra looks around.

"He's talking about Paine where is Paine?" he says looking around.

"That's her." Jin says pointing his fork at Shinra. 

Paine comes in silently and sits down. Everyone is staring at her. She looks at them and stops her food mid-way to her mouth.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" she asks looking annoyed. 

Jin grins. Before he could speak she puts a hand in his face.

"Please…don't say anything right now." she says.

"What's wrong?" Rikku asks.

Paine looks at her food and then rolls her eyes.

"Nothing is wrong. Can we just eat." 

Jin laughs.

"Red eye chili pepper." he says.

Everyone but Paine laughs. She growls and picks her plate up. 

"I'll be eating in my room." she says leaving.

"Was it something I said?" Jin goes.

"Yuna…will you be performing anymore concerts soon?" Brother asks with excitement.

"Not now…" she says smiling. "I have something on my mind that I can't let go of. I have to clear my head before I can perform again."

"Hmm…I'm sensing that it's more like a SOMEONE that's on your mind." Jin says.

Brother looks at Yuna's reaction. She puts a hand to her face and looks away.

Rikku grins.

"I knew it. It IS Raiden isn't it?"

Yuna eyes Rikku with an angry face. 

"Oops." Rikku says putting a hand to her mouth. "Heh heh." 

Jin and Buddy both stare at her and frown.

"Yuna…you know that Raiden is not the type of person that you should be getting along with."

"I'm old enough to think on my own." she says harmlessly. "I'm not trying to see him…I was just hoping that maybe he could help me."

"The most wicked guy in Spira and you were hoping he could help?" Jin goes.

"Hey! Don't question Yuna's actions!" Brother yells. "If she want to see him then she can see him."

"You don't understand…it's for personal reasons. I thought that he could do something for me. A special favor."

"Yuna…" Jin says , "You can't get anything from this guy. Not even a small favor is done without something in return. To sum it all up for you…he is bad news. Ok?"

"I know…but he also has a link to the Farplane."

"What?" Everyone says at the same time.

"It's true." Paine says coming back in. "I saw…my father…he was…in trouble."

"Wait." Jin says. "Are you telling me that the Farplane is in a mess now?"

"I don't know. But I saw…my friends."

"You saw us?" Shinra asks.

"No…I saw…my fellow guardians." 

"You saw sir Aaron?" Rikku asks confused.

"Yes. Although I can't say that I understand what was going on in the sphere. I do know that he's in trouble."

"Aaron can take care of himself."

"Did you say sir Aaron?" Paine asks with a look of awe. "Where is that sphere?"

"Raiden has it. He's in Guadosalam. Should we go see him?"

"Hey you were planning to anyway right?" Jin asks.

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

"No I wasn't." she says.

"Then it's set. After we eat we go to Guadosalam." Buddy says.

"Right!" Rikku says cheerfully. 

Paine stares into space. (I wonder if that could be him. I wonder if he is the same Aaron…that I once knew.) she thinks.

Jin gets up and throws away his trash.

"Well…I'm heading off to the engine room to repair the ship. The last fiend hunt we went on really killed the armor system." he says leaving.

"Ok!" Brother says posing. "Now! Rikku, Buddy lets go the bridge! We are heading to Guadosalam." he says excitedly. 

They head off to the bridge. Yuna goes upstairs and lies down on the bed. (Could there really be a way to reach you?) she thinks.

Aaron comes up and finds Tidus lying on the ground with his arms behind his head. 

"You would lie down at time like this?" he asks sounding annoyed.

"Why should I care? You never tell me anything. I don't know what's going on. So I have no reason to get up and do anything. Aaron, if you haven't noticed, we are in the Farplane. There's nothing more we can do."

"Haven't you looked around you?! Did you notice anything?! The fiends that are here?"

"There are no fiends here."

Suddenly six Sin scales appear. He jumps up and looks around as he and Aaron are surrounded by them. 

"What?! I thought this was over!"

"Apparently everyone did. They're all over the place." 

"Where's dad?"

"I don't know. Braska is gone too."

"I…don't have anything to fight with…Aaron…help!"

"Humph…and now you ask for my help?"

"Ah!" he yells as the scales charge.

Aaron strikes them all down one by one. 

"You really shouldn't be so weak." he says.

"What?! What am I supposed to do with no weapon?"

"Humph." he says tossing him an old sword. "I found this. Use it."

Tidus takes the sword and hops up.  
"Aw man. This can't do anything."

"We'll see about that."

"Somebody help me!" an old man yells. 

Two chimeras are attacking him.

"Come on." Aaron says running for him.

They knock the man up against the wall and zap him two times with Thundaga. 

"No!" Tidus yells. 

He takes them both out with blitz ace. 

"Ha ha ha. What about that?" he says boasting. 

"Boast after we're clear." Aaron says heading over to the old guy.

"Are you ok?" he asks.

"Yes…" he says, "Are they gone?"

"Not quite." Tidus says turning around to two iron giants. "It seems like they're after you!"

The old man leans against the wall and stares in fright. 

"I'll chop you down to size!" Aaron yells slashing them both with power breaks. The giants both swing from two different sides.

"Jump!" he orders. 

Aaron grabs the old man and they leap up to higher ground. The giants both swing for Aaron. 

"Tidus! Make yourself useful!" he screams.

"Ok already." he says running up to the giants. He slashes them both down two hits each. They fall into parieflies and vanish. Aaron jumps down wit the old man and then puts his sword away. 

"They seem to be gone for now. Lets find a place to hide. They go past a few mountains and rest behind a waterfall. 

"So…you want to tell us what's going on?" Aaron asks the man.

"It's a weird man and a strange figure. It glows black and can summon just about any Aeon or fiend that you can speak of." the old man says taking a seat. 

"I can't be." Tidus says flopping to the ground. 

"I don't know their names but I do know that one can summon and the other can as well…except he has very powerful magic about him."

"You still haven't told us why those fiends were hunting you." Aaron says

"It appears that I have a secret that they want very much." 

"I secret? What kind of secret?" Tidus asks.

"I know how to get to Spira."

"What!?"

Aaron rubs his chin.

"I don't believe you."

"If you will…I have proof of this."

"If we will what?" Tidus asks.

"There are so many fiends now. And I can't go alone. But if you take me I can show you what I mean."

"Fine." Aaron says picking up his sword. "Lets go." 

"Wait…you don't believe him do you?"

"What have we got to lose? We're already dead." he says looking out of the cave. "The path is clear. Come on."

They rush out of the cave and the old man starts to run for some ruins that are in the distance. 

"This way!" he yells.

Several Lupines and Drakes spot them from a distance and charge. 

"Oh no. What now?" Tidus yells. 

"Keep running." Aaron says.

"No! I'll hold them off. You guys keep going. I'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes." 

Aaron shakes his head in agreement and grabs the old man on his shoulder. Then he takes off for the ruins. 

"Just keep going until you reach the base of the mountain." the old man yells. 

Tidus turn to the monsters and frowns. (I can't lose.) he says grabbing the blade. He charges at them. As they attack him he slashes them down in one blow. Every Lupine he slashes brings three more up to him. He backs up letting them bunch up together. 

"Prepare to die!" he yells. 

Then he rushes in cutting everyone. Afterwards he jumps out and uses blitz ace on them all. They fall one at a time like dominos. 

"Haha." he says cheering in victory. 

Then he runs off after Aaron and the old man.

Yuna wakes up from Rikku constantly shaking her.

"Yunie, Yunie we're here. Come on. It's time to meet Raiden."

She gets up and gets dressed. Then they head to the bridge and meet Jin and Brother. Jin frowns.

"I don't like this one bit. Why are we coming here again?"

"To get answers." Rikku says smiling. 

Yuna doesn't respond. She just gets off and heads over to Raiden's house. She knocks on the door. 

"Who is it?" Raiden asks. 

"It's Yuna." 

"Oh…are you alone?" 

"NO I'm not. Why do you want to see me?"

"I want to show you some thing that I think is import to you." 

"Then let me in."

"Only if your friends stay out there. Ok?"

"Fine." she says turning to them. "You guys wait here."

They agree and she walks in. She sits down in a soft chair and he flops down with two spheres in his hands. 

"These spheres are from the Farplane."

"Um…what do they show?"

"That…isn't as important as what I'm about to tell you. I just figured out that there's someone that believes what I believe. There's someone that believes that Yevon is still in truth and light."

"Yevon was a false teaching used to control people. There is no real hope in Yevon." she says. 

"That is where you're wrong. Yevon is real. Yu Yevon is real."

"Yu Yevon is gone. Defeated. And he was the cause of sin. Not the wrongs of others." she says sighing heavily. "Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? Your last resort to convincing me to remake Yu Yevon?"

"You know I will let you see these spheres if you began Yevon's teachings again."

"How do you think I can do that?"

"You are the high summoner Yuna. They will listen to you."

She stands up and shakes her head.

"I'm sorry but I will not teach false teachings. Not matter the cost. I'll eventually find one sooner or later anyways. Good day."

"The little guy with the blonde, spiked hair seemed to be in big trouble." he teases. "You might want to see this."

"You know…" she says holding her chin. "I do…want to see them." she says.

"Good. So we have a deal?"

"No…" she says smiling.

Suddenly she draws her guns and aims for his head.

"Give them to me." she demands.

"What?! You're kidding right? The high summoner stealing from a Guado? The one race of people she lied to to protect her own friends two years ago."

"Humph…I'll worry about that when it happens. Now hand me the spheres."

"You're bluffing. You don't have the heart to shoot anyone."

"Hand me the spheres now."

She readies them to his forehead and pushes his head back some.

"I…don't…believe you will kill me…" 

She kicks the spheres out of his hands and opens her pouch on her belt and watches as they fall in. Then she smiles.

"Thanks a bunch." she says leaving.

Jin stands along with everyone else as Yuna comes out of the house. She smiles.

"Everyone…Raiden offers these two spheres in exchange for his life." she says. 

Raiden runs out to them.

"No I didn't she stole them."

"Really?" Paine says holding her sword up to his neck.

She puts up so close that it broke the skin.

"Uh…yeah…I offered them to you." he says giving them an evil look.

"Hey lets go or people will start coming around." Jin says taking the spheres. 

"Yeah. I can fix them up on the ship." Shinra says. 

They quickly board the ship. Raiden frowns and slams the door behind him. 

As they fly up into the air Shinra takes the spheres and begins working on them. Everyone sits down in the bar to talk.

"So…you two know that guy personally?" Jin asks Paine and Yuna. 

"Well we just met a few months ago." Yuna says. "While me and Paine were on a Lupine hunt. He was there as well. But…we are not friends."

"Yeah I kind of figured that out when Paine offered to behead him." Jin says laying back in his seat. 

Buddy gets on the intercom.

"Everyone there's a problem in Luca. There seems to be several fiends attacking. What do we do?"

Brother looks at Yuna.

"Yuna…what should we do?" he asks.

She looks down to think. Paine folds her arms.

"I think we have a better lead trying to figure out how Raiden got these spheres." Paine says.

Rikku frowns.

"But what about those people in Luca?" she asks.

"Tell them to fight for themselves. They can't run to us every time there's trouble."

"Yes that's true but we should still help those that are helpless right?" Yuna says. 

Paine sighs. Brother jumps up and waves his arms. 

"I got it. Listen…Yuna, and Jin. You two go and help the people in Luca. Rikku…you and Paine go back and trace the locations of the spheres."

"Sounds good." Jin says. 

"Wait…what will you do?" Rikku asks.

"I will help Buddy on the airship. There is still some repairs that need to be made. Now get going." 

"Right" Everyone says.

Yuna and Jin drop down in the stands of the blitz ball arena. Several people are running from fiends and some are getting killed. Jin draws his staff and guards ready. She takes out a few fiends that attack them both.

"This is fun." he says.

"High summoner Yuna!" a man screams running to her. 

A fire hound is chasing him. She shoots it down. 

"Thank you." he says stopping in front of her.

"What's going on?" she asks.

Before he answered his skin turns gray and he bites Yuna deep in her neck.

"Ah!" she says fighting to get him off. 

He wraps around her and starts draining her life. 

"NO…" Jin yells slashing off his head. 

As soon as he vanishes Yuna drops to the floor. He kneels down next to her.

"Here, here's a tonic." 

"No!" she says pushing his hand away from her mouth. "If I take that…I'll die."

"Oh yeah…I almost forgot." he says holding her. "Don't worry. I'll get us out of here."

He taps his ear piece.

"Brother, come back and pick us up. Yuna's hurt and we don't have any holy waters!"

"Wh…you're breaking…I ca…"

The signal goes dead. Yuna looks at him with unfaithful eyes.

"Jin…if I attack you…please just…"

"No…I won't I can't do that. I'll think of something."

A fiend similar to the gate keeper comes up and attacks. He knocks Jin several yards away. 

"No…Yuna.." he says struggling to get up. 

Yuna staggers up and looks at the monster. She tries to shoot it but a wasp flies into her knocking her through the sphere circle and into the blitz ball locker rooms. Jin looks at the monsters as they come closer to him. He then looks down into the room and spots several fiends heading her way. He dashes off towards the exit to the stands so that he could get to the locker rooms. Two iron giants land in his path and starts attacking him. He doges their large swords and strikes them both. They take the hits like their nothing and keeps swinging. 

"Yuna! Get up!" he yells.

She tries to move and is knocked against the wall by a chimera. Seeing that she can no longer fight he leaps down to aid her. He lands on the chimera's head crushing it. Then he zaps two water elements with thunder killing them both. 

"Foolish boy!" Raiden yells. 

He looks around but sees no one.

"You can't stop me. No one will be able to stop me. I am the new Yevon. And you will obey me." 

"Where are you?!" he yells.

"You'll never find me." he says summoning two basilisks to attack. 

Jin powers energy into his fist and blasts a holy based energy beam into both of them killing them both. He then drops to one knee. (No…my power is running low. I don't know if I can last much longer.) he thinks.

"Ah!" he yell as a lizard slashes him in the back.

He spins cutting his head in half and sending his body into the wall. (I can't stay here. I have to move.) Several vampires start to enter the room. He looks around and starts knocking them down one by one. Then he puts his staff into the slot on his back and draws his sword. After killing several of the vampires he slams and bars the door. Then he grabs several cloths out of his pocket and links them tightly. Yuna's skin starts to turn gray. He then ties her arms behind her and gags her mouth.

"Sorry about this High Summoner but I can't have you biting me too." he says throwing her over his shoulder. "You might have sore ankles after this but at least we'll both be alive." he says getting ready to open the door. As soon as he readies his blade to charge Valefor lands on the top of the open hole. 

"Come on!" Isaaru yells. 

Jin wastes no time getting to the top of the hole and then jumps onto Valefor. The vampires all crash into the room and Valefor uses energy blast blowing up the entire half of the stadium. 

"Ok…take us out of here." Isaaru says patting Valefor on the head. 

It starts flying away. Jin lays Yuna down and she starts biting the cloth. He takes the cloth off of her mouth and she starts to cough. 

"Please…get me some…holy water…quick." she struggles to say. "I can't…fight it…much longer."

Isaaru digs in his pocket and pulls out a small glass jar.

"Here. Lay her on her back and poor this straight into her throat. It will sting but it will cure her."

He does as commanded and pours the water in her mouth. She shakes vigorously and then stops moving.

"She's not moving."  
"It's ok. It will take a while." he says. 

As they reach the clouds Valefor stops suspending himself in mid-air. Jin falls down as blood starts to pour out of his back. (Shoot! Fine time to leave all of my supplies at home and how were those fiends able to cut through my skin?) he thinks.

"We have problems." Isaaru says as he looks up into the sky.

Jin looks up and to his surprise, Anima is staring at them both. 

"Wha-what is that?"

"It's an Aeon. I don't know who summoned it but whoever did is trying to kill us."

"Should we try to avoid it?"

"There is no…look out!"

Anima uses Pain and knocks Jin off of Valefor and into the ocean. 

"No!" Isaaru yells. "Valefor take us out of here."

It starts flying in the opposite direction. Isaaru looks down for Jin but nothing comes up from the water. He then looks at Luca as fiends overwhelm the city. 

"I'm sorry people but there's nothing I could do." he says flying away on Valefor. 

***

Shinra finishes loading the spheres. 

"Hey I have them ready." he tells everyone. 

"Great…now we can watch them." Rikku says. 

Paine sits down next to Shinra and the others watch from a distance. Shinra then turns on the first sphere. 

(First Sphere: 

Tidus is running from several fiends and it seems like he is trying to catch up with Aaron and some one else. They can't quite make out who the other person is. 

"Aaron! Wait up!" he yells. 

Then the screen turns and shows what is chasing him. It looks to be a fiend that has ten wings and looks to be Anima's size. It looks more like a Machine than a fiend. It quickly catches up to Tidus and it's large arm swipes down at him. Then the screen fades away.)

"That's all of that sphere." Shinra says.

He then loads the next sphere.

(Second Sphere: 

Aaron is running with an old man in front of him. He keeps looking back at something and then running on. 

"Hurry! Find the cave! I have to go back to get him. Yuna would never forgive me." he says.

"Ok. Here it is." the old man says.

"Wait here." he says running off out of sight. 

Then the sphere fades again.)

Paine stares as if she's been stabbed in the heart by someone she loved. 

"Um…Paine? Are you ok?"

She notices that she's starting to cry and she runs out of the room.

"That's weird." Rikku says.

"Tell you what's more strange than that? I can't pick up Yuna's signal. Jin's com-link is dead."

"What?!!" Brother yells alarmed. "Oh no! We must find Yuna."

"What about Jin?" Rikku asks.

"Forget him. We'll save him after we save Yuna. Where was her last location?"

"Luca. But it's gone. I can't find it anywhere. Wait…I have a signal. It's coming from some unknown co ordinance."

In the screen Isaaru is seen holding Yuna. He seems to be hurt and he is surrounded by Aeons. 

"Someone…if you are there can you please get us out of here." he says.

"YUNA!" Brother yells.

"Hello?"

"This is Buddy speaking. Is Yuna ok?"

"Yes…she's just unconscious. Can you get us out of here?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm not sure. We were knocked here by an Aeon. One summoned by a very strong person. You must get here quickly. Yuna is getting weaker. Hurry."

Before Buddy could respond, a large four legged fiend that's three feet taller than Anima appears in the back ground. It knocks his Infirit out of the screen. 

"NO! What on earth is this?" Isaaru asks.

"Get out of there. We'll track the sphere. Get out of there!"

"We have to go after them!" Rikku says.

The large fiend shoots fire out of his mouth and blows up the sphere. 

"Oh no…" Buddy says looking away. "I think she's…"

"No! You find that place now!" Rikku says. "I'll go down and find her." 

"The signal is coming from some place near the middle of the ocean. It's a telepad on the small piece of land out there. That's how you get there. Hurry." he says.

"Hang on. I'll go get Paine." she says running. 

Brother folds his arms.

"Is it over?" he asks.

Shinra gets up from his chair.

"Not if we can get there before it happens. I'm pretty sure that Isaaru can hold out until we get there."

"Who?" Buddy says confused. 

"Isaaru. He is the man that was holding Yuna. He is a summoner as well." 

"We're almost there. Where is Rikku?"

Rikku comes back in with a face full of worry.

"Guys! Paine is gone!" 

"What?!" everyone says alarmed.

"Well where could she have gone?" Brother asks.

"I don't know."

"Rikku!!!!! Stop talking to me like this!! I am the leader here!!!"

"Hey can we worry about this later? We have fiends still attacking Killika and Besaid. Plus Yuna and Paine are missing. Boy, the Gullwings are falling apart." Shinra says.

"NO! We go save Yuna!" Brother says. "Full speed ahead." 

The ship speeds off for the island. Paine looks at them from the ground below.

"I'm sorry…but there is something that I must do." she says.

Isaaru jumps behind Bahamut in hopes of protection from the large monster. It swings it's long arm and knocks Bahamut away like swatting a fly. Bahamut hit's the wall and is sent away because of heavy damage. Isaaru looks at Yuna who is still unconscious. He hides behind a rock and checks her pulse to make sure that she is still alive. He then smiles as her skin is starting to get warm again. Then the fiend stands over the rock and fires his flame breath again. It sweeps over both of them. Isaaru closes his eyes excepting death when all of a sudden a reflective shield is formed blocking the fire from reaching them both. He stares up above him as Lulu stands forming the shell spell on them. 

"Quickly! Get Yuna out of the way!" she says.

"I can't. I can't move." he says. 

Kimari runs in and grabs them up and starts up to the cliffs to reach the platform where Lulu is standing. Isaaru is on one shoulder and Yuna is on the other one. The fiend comes at him and Lulu blasts him backwards with an Ultima attack. It takes heavy damage but it doesn't quit. Wakka comes up with his blitz ball. 

"Lulu…what's this thing doing back up again?"

"I don't know. But I can't take it alone. You have to help me."

"No problem. Kimari you know what to do with Yuna."

"Kimari will be back in a few minutes. You hold until Kimari returns."

"Gotcha." Wakka says. 

The fiend comes again and hit's the ground shaking it. Lulu falls back and Wakka smashes it in the face with a blitz ball. It falls over heavily damaged. 

"Lulu are you ok?"

"Yes." she says getting up by herself. 

She then blasts another Ultima spell that sends the monster back a few feet. Realizing that it wasn't going to get it's target it turns and runs into the caves. Lulu falls to her knees weak from the use of energy. Wakka runs over to her. 

"Lulu, are you alright?"

"Yes. Perhaps I need to exercise more. Where's Yuna."

"This way. Come on. I'll carry you." he says picking her up.

They head over to Isaaru who is near death. 

"Are you ok?" Lulu asks.

"Kimari thinks that Isaaru will be fine. Why hasn't Yuna moved?"

"I was…in Luca. The fiends…they raided the whole city. She was with…a friend…he was badly hurt when we tried to escape. I don't know where they all came from. It's like they were using an attack strategy. I don't understand how they new to attack like they did."

"The friend she was with-" Lulu started before Yuna's movement caught her attention.

"JIN!!" Yuna yells sitting up. "Where is he?"

"I'm sorry…a fiend attacked him as we escaped and he fell into the ocean. I didn't see him come up."

"We have to go back for him."

"Yuna…we can't." Lulu says holding her head. "It's too full of fiends right now."

"But he…protected me…risked his life."

"Yuna…I can't say that he survived after the condition he was in when he took his last hit. I don't think that he had any more strength left." Isaaru says.

"No…" Yuna says staring forward with a sad expression. 

"I'm…sorry lady Yuna." Isaaru says. "I tried my best. Who ever sent those fiends were very strong and knew what they were doing."

"Isaaru…you are hurt." Lulu says. "Why not come to Besaid so that we can help."

"I'll…be glad to go anywhere as long as I'm not here." he says standing up.

"Lets go. We have a ship out near the water. We'll be in Besaid in no time." Lulu says. 

Tidus finishes off the last of the fiends and then sprints for Aaron. 

"Aaron! Wait up." he yells. 

As he starts up the hill a large fiend comes from the shadows and shoots an energy blast at Tidus. The explosion knocks him to the ground. He turns around and looks up at the fiend.

"Tidus! Run!" Aaron yells from a hill several yards away. 

Tidus freezes as the fiend's arm shoots down coming to crush him. 

"Get out of the way!" a woman yells leaping over to him. 

With all of her might she slings him out of the way and jumps out of the way before the large arm crushes the ground leaving a large arm print. Tidus lands in a sitting position and then looks up at the monster. There's a girl standing in front of the monster. She looks like Yuna's gun mage except her skirt is white and black and her top is black. She has a long ponytail as well except that it isn't covered and the plat is wrapped around her waist and the rest hangs off like the end of a belt. Her boots also have a higher heel. 

"Hey! Get out of the way! You can't beat that thing."

She turns around and smiles at him. He freezes and his heart beats so hard that his chest seems like it's going to burst. She is the spitting image of Yuna. Except her hair isn't spiked. It's straight. 

"Don't worry. I'm fine." she says. 

Then she turns to the fiend again. An aura forms around her as she seems to summon energy. Then she unloads it all on the monster. The blast was so big that the light from it blinds everyone but her. The fiend falls over not moving much now at all. She waves her hand in the air.

"Rainbow!" she says.

Bahamut comes down and blows it away with his Mega Flair. Then she sends him away. Tidus stands up and looks at her with an unsure face. (It can't be. Who could've done it? Or is that even her?) he says staring in awe. 

"If you don't hurry, they'll come back." she says.

"That voice." he says to himself. 

It's almost identical to hers. A tad bit softer but just the same. She then darts towards Aaron and the old man. Tidus runs after them all. As they reach him the old man points down the other side. 

"There…behind that waterfall is where the place is." he says.

"Fine…lets go." Aaron says. 

They head over to the waterfall.

"Here it is." the old man says.

"It awaits." Aaron says drawing his sword.

"Huh?" Tidus says confused. 

All of the sudden the gatekeeper that was sent from the Zanarkand ruins appears. On top of him is Yunalesca. 

"I am sorry. But that old man is needed elsewhere. I cannot let you protect him. I'm giving you one chance to hand him over to me." she says.

"No way!" Tidus yells. 

"You do realize that once you die here you cannot come back." she says.

"I think YOU should consider that not us." Aaron says.

"Very well…do be merciless." she says to her summons as she flies away.

The gatekeeper roars and then fires photon wings. 

"Look out!" Aaron says.

The woman raises and shell and the blasts hits them partially. It knocks her away as the spell was only meant to shield Aaron, the old man and Tidus. Aaron strikes the monster hard and then looks to Tidus.

"Listen hold him off. I'll see to her." he says

"Right."

Tidus hit's him with Blitz Ace and then he's knocked backwards by a powerful swing. The monsters uses flare and Tidus jumps out of the way and slashes him again. Then the gatekeeper realizes the sudden damage and casts mighty-guard. 

"Oh no." Tidus says 

A glyph is formed at its mouth and seconds later he blasts a large beam barely hitting the old man. It was enough to send him to the ground in critical condition. Tidus runs in front of the old man and taunts the gatekeeper causing its attention to change. It tries to strike Tidus fiercely but he evades it. 

"Can't you do anything right?" Aaron jokes as he powers up.

Then he performs Tornado overdrive knocking away all of his mighty-guard abilities. The woman runs up and powers up. Then she shoots Cursed beam at him causing poison, curse, power/magic/mental/armor break, and would've caused death if he wasn't immune to it. The gatekeeper then casts reflect on everyone.

"Oh no you don't" the woman says dispelling everyone. "Ok…lets pick it up." she says casting hastaga. 

"Whoa…that did the trick." Tidus says striking the gatekeeper several times. 

The woman runs over to the old man and kneels down holding his head. 

"Hang on." she says using cure on him.

He starts to breath easy again and sits up. 

"Thank you." he says. 

Aaron strikes the gatekeeper several times dealing very heavy damage. The gatekeeper starts fall signally that he can't take much more. 

"He's almost done. Lets do it."

"Save your strength." the woman says. "Come Nightmare." 

Anima is suddenly pulled out of the ground and hits the gatekeeper with Oblivion. It falls and explodes into a river of pyre flies. She then sends it away and sits down.

"Wow…that was two close calls huh?" she says.

"We talk after we get into the cave." Aaron says. 

The old man walks through a path that is hidden by the waterfall. 

"This way." 

They follow him inside. The cave is not very big and there seems to be a door to a back room. He opens the door and lets them through. They all gasp as they see nine bodies lying on the floor. 

"These are my nine other bodies. This young one here. That's the most recent. I was killed by sin a few years ago. The others are just about as old as I am. And…as you can see…I was the only one to know about these bodies. Because…I am the only one that knows about the secret. What is the secret you ask? The secret is that there's a secret place far from here. It's similar to the cloister of trials. At the end of that place is a warrior. A keeper the worlds. If you reach him then he will decide whether you are worthy of another chance. If you are not, you will be killed on the spot."

"Humph…then how did you get through nine times?" Aaron asks.

"He respects the old. Admires the elders. Anyone around my age that makes it there is rewarded with another chance."

"I don't get it. Why didn't you tell anyone?" Tidus asks.

"Because a lot of people wouldn't make it. And some do not deserve to. I don't want to have a big mess run through the Farplane as well."

"Good point." the woman says.

"Uh…just who are you anyway?" Tidus asks her.

"It's a long story." she says.

Aaron sits down.

"We have all the time in the world." he says.

She sits down and crosses her legs.

"Fine…about six years ago I went on a pilgrimage." she starts.

"Wait…six years ago? That's what…two years before Yuna started."

"Who…is Yuna?" she asks.

"Why don't you start by telling us your name?" Aaron says.

"My name is Mage." she says smiling.

Aaron looks at her. Blonde hair, that's really long and looks to be the right age.

"You can't be the same little girl we past in Kilika." Aaron says rubbing his chin.

"When I was younger I saw Lord Braska and his guardians when they passed through Killika. I told him that I was going to be a high summoner soon. He laughed but I was serious. I became a summoner shortly after that and then and I trained my Aeons for a long time. Now they're stronger than ever. Only…when I got to Yunalesca, I was weak. I came across sin on my way to Luca. My fiancé was my guardian. His name is Jin. Sin was about to kill him and I jumped in front so that he could live…" she says lowering her head. 

"A guardian is supposed to protect his summoner at all costs." Aaron says.

"He did. I was just not ready to see him die…for me…"

"So…sin killed you right?" Tidus says looking away. 

"Yeah…I wanted to go back or find a way to tell him that I don't want him to worry. I bet he's beside himself about letting me do what I did. I don't want him to feel bad."

"Well…we're all wanting the same thing right?" Tidus goes. "We all wanna know where this strange place is that holds a path back to Spira. So why not team up to get there?"

"And what of Jecht and Braska?" Aaron asks. 

"We have to find them too." he says. 

"There's no need." Jecht says walking in. 

Braska comes in after him. 

"I found you." he jokes. 

Braska stares at Mage. Then he looks at Tidus.

"Aaron…are these friends of yours?" he asks.

"Yes…this is Jecht's son." he says shoving Tidus forward.

"Wow…he looks just like you Jecht."

"Yeah…if I can just keep him from crying I'll be ok." Jecht says rubbing his head.

Mage stands up and walks over to the old man.

"Can you please take me to the secret place? I have to see Jin…" she says.

"Yeah…show us all where this place is. We'll help you get there."

"I'm afraid that there is a problem. That summoner and his spirited friend are blocking the path that I usually take to go there." 

"So we'll bust through them." 

"And after we get past them? What then? They will follow us to the place."

"Then we end them for good." Tidus says.

Mage laughs. 

"I like your eagerness. But I doubt that it will be that simple."

Tidus stares at her. (Yeah…this is like déjà vu all over again…except that she looks a bit older than Yuna. Besides the blonde hair…and the fancy cloths…you could be Yuna. But you're not. In a way…that makes me glad. That lets me know that Yuna isn't dead. And I still have a chance to…see her again.)

"Did I say something wrong?" Mage asks.

"Huh? Uh…no." he says laughing. "So what's the plan?

"We head to the spot. The secret spot." Jecht says.

"It's called the valley of the Brave. I can take you there. But there will be fiends all the way there. And I warn you…I can not fight. For I do not know how."

"That's ok…" Jecht says. "Me and Aaron can do all of the fighting for you."

Mage stands up. 

"I guess I can be a healer."

"Hmph. I say…we just go and see if this thing is real. These bodies can be anyone." Aaron says.

"Fine…you don't believe me… so I'll just have to prove myself by taking you there." the old man says. "Are you ready?"

"To be undead? That's kind of a weird question." Mage says. "But, yeah…I'm ready." 

"Ok…there are two castle ruins that block the way. One holds the summoner and the other one is where the spirited one is being kept. I only know one thing about them. The spirited one has summoned fiends here to the Farplane to kidnap me. They somehow discovered that me I've been here many times. They want to know the secret."

"So we split up right?" Braska asks.

"I think it's best if we attack both castles one at a time. All of us together. That way we can know what's going on at all times. You do know that if we die…we can't even come back here. We vanish from history all together. I think we have a better chance of beating them if we go together than if we split up." Mage says. 

Aaron stands up. 

"Is everyone ready to go? I have a battle strategy. Two of us will protect the old man…the rest of us will lead the way." he says.

"Sounds like a plan." Tidus says.

(I'll finally get to see you again. Yuna…and I can finally tell you…how much I've missed you.) Tidus says to himself.

(Paine…I haven't seen you here…so I wonder…if you are still in Spira.)

The old man gets up and stretches. 

"Well…we've all had a good rest. For the record, you all can call me Cloud." the old man says.

"Ok Cloud…where to?" Jecht asks drawing a large two handed sword.

"After we climb this cliff and cross the water fall. we'll reach a small patch of woods. Now you have to watch it. The most power fiends are in those woods. That's where the spirited one is. The summoner has weaker fiends on the way to his fort in the opposite direction. So who do we hit first?"

"The summoner!" Tidus says. "I'd like to pay him a little visit!"

Braska stares silent and his actions catch Aaron's attention.

"Something the matter Braska?" he asks.

"I can't help but think that my wife is in on something terrible. You do realize that she is very smart. As well as powerful." he says.

"What are you saying?" Cloud asks.

"I'm saying that I think it's best that we do split up. I mean they wouldn't expect it. The two best warriors among ups protect Cloud and head for the summoner and the second rates will head for this spirited one. That seems like a better plan to me." he says.

Mage stands up and Jecht laughs.

"Well Aaron…looks like we're stuck with each other again. Come on Cloud lets go." 

"Alright…I guess that leaves Braska, Tidus and me to take care of the spirited one." Mage says standing up. 

Jecht grins. 

"My boy…finally getting a woman…nah…that'll be the first." he says. 

Cloud, Aaron and Jecht step out and head up the cliff. Mage draws her sword. It looks very unique. It has a golden handle with the blade coming out of the mouth of a dragon. The tail is the bottom of the handle it coils like a spring. The blade is long and looks like it's made of crystal. 

"Shall we get going? I take it we're expected to be finished the same time that they are."

Tidus stares at her face. Her light green eyes that are so full of happiness and bliss. (If only one were blue.) he says to himself. She starts for the entrance to the cave. 

"Aren't you guys coming?" she asks. 

"Uh…right." Tidus says heading for her.

Braska doesn't say anything. He smiles and walks towards them. (And to think…my daughter is about her age…I wonder how she looks now?) he thinks to himself. He then heads out and their party heads in the opposite direction as Aaron, Jecht and Cloud. Yunalesca sits over the waterfall and smiles as she overheard everything that they said. She then vanishes lowly laughing. 

Aaron silently walks through what seems to be a mountain slope. He has his blade on his shoulder and Cloud is walking a distance in front of him. Ahead are two trees that seem to bend into the road. The old man seemed to stick to the path as though he knew exactly where he was going. Aaron watched in every direction expecting an ambush. Jecht walks with his sword at his side relaxed. 

"I smell trouble." Aaron says

Several elementals appear and prepare to fire. 

"Piece of cake." Jecht says as he slashes through all of them. "Aaron…if you're gonna make people think that there's a fight coming along make sure that it's one that's gonna be challenging ok?"

"I wasn't talking about them." he says narrowing his gaze towards the front of the bunch. 

Up ahead a man is staring at them. He has a bang on the right side of his face covering his eye. His hair is gray and his skin is gray as well. He is dressed like a Yevonite. 

"So…you decide to the defy the will of the summoner?" he says drawing a blade.

Jecht rubs his neck and smiles.

"I only answer to one summoner and that's Braska. So why don't you step aside before we have to kick your butt huh?" 

"You think of me as a mere stepping stone? The old man comes with me." he says stretching out his hand.

"Which one? There are three of us." Jecht says.

"Gr…that's it. I guess you all chose to die for this old fool." he says readying himself. 

Then he summons two guados to help him out. 

"You two…get the old man. I'll take care of these two jokes." he says drawing a sword. 

The two guados run for Cloud. Aaron steps in front of him and guards. 

"Stay back." he says. 

Jecht gets ready to fight when he notices that two Drakes are coming from behind. 

"So you got everything all planned out huh?" he says attacking the fiends. 

Aaron blocks two of the Guado attacks and then slashes one in the face. It takes the hit and kicks him in the face. Cloud runs into the bushes to his right and hides. Jecht gets knocked backwards by the power of the drake as it charges into him. He then leaps over them and cuts off their tails. They roar in pain and then blasts fire breath at him. He takes the hit easily and then cuts one in the throat killing it. He looks up at Aaron who has taken down one Guado and is fighting the other one. The drake slings his tale and Jecht jumps over it. On his way down, he meets a fire breath that almost burns his skin off. He spins out of the way and slashes the drake in the face taking out one of his eyes. It then starts to fight out of control, swinging in all directions. Aaron drinks some of his drink and then spits it out on his blade causing a black aura to form on the sword. 

"You will wish you never fought me." he says charging the Guado. 

As he swings the gray skinned man dashes in between and blocks the hit. The contact from their weapons sends energy everywhere and then they are pushed apart. The man smiles as Aaron seems to be weaker than before. Aaron falls to one knee.

"Hahaha…so…you can't even take a hit to your sword without burning all of your strength?" the man asks. 

Jecht stares confused.

"Aaron! Get up! There's no time to be slacking." he says dodging the drake's attack.

He slashes the head off of the fiend killing it. He then turns around and charges forward to help Aaron. 

"Watch out Jecht. This guy can steal your energy with any contact."

"Then how do we beat him?"

"Simple. We take alittle pain." he says standing up. 

Jecht charges him attacking several times. The man easily dodges each swing. Aaron grins and jumps in hitting him with a powerful mental break. The man falls back holding his head. 

"Argh…" he says trying to shake away the pain. 

"Humph…ATTACK NOW! WHILE'S HURT!"

They use an all out attack. Jecht runs in slicing him eight times. While he's cutting, Aaron drinks from his bottle and spits on his sword once again. After the eighth hit Jecht leaps off of his head into the sky. He then readies his sword and comes down for a final swing. At the same time he and Aaron's blades hit the man sending him to the ground. He sits up holding his chest as pyre flies began to fly out of his wombs. 

"You may have won this round…but I'm not the only one of us. There are more…that are stronger more intelligent. Plus…I've done my job…" he says falling dead.

"What is he talking about?" Jecht asks turning to Cloud. 

Aaron turns around alarmed as Yunalesca has Cloud by the throat floating in mid-air. 

"Thank you. We will not forget the unholy sent." she says laughing. 

Jecht doesn't say a word. Aaron rushes at her trying to stop her but she only flies higher into the air.

"Sir Aaron…if only you would've joined our cause. You could've gone back to spira. However you won't now because…we will kill him after we're done with him. And he will vanish from the Farplane and from existence…forever." he says laughing and flying away. 

"Crap!" Jecht says stabbing his sword into the ground. "Now what?"

"She's heading for the spirited one's palace. I wonder why?"

"How about we follow her and see?"

"We have no choice. We have to get him back." Aaron says rushing into the bushes. 

Jecht runs after him.

Yuna sat on Wakka's bed with her head down. She hasn't spoken in hours. Isaaru is sleep on the other bad. (I can't believe he…died for me…I never paid him any attention and all this time he felt he needed to protect me. I was so busy worried about myself.)

"Hey…how are you feeling?" Wakka asks.

"Fine feeling ok…like I just woke up." she says still looking away. 

"What's wrong?" Lulu asks coming in.

"I…was just thinking about Jin. How he…risked his life for me."

"Hey…he's a nice guy. I'm pretty sure he can take care of himself."

"He's…gone…" she says looking away.

"How friendly was he?" Lulu asks trying to comfort her.

"He…was the only one to come close…to him…We had so much in common. He lost his love to Sin as I did. We bonded together in a special way…"

"I'm sorry…he seemed like a nice person." Lulu says.

Wakka rubs his neck.

"Um…well there's always blitz ball right? The Aurochs are competing this year. Why go and watch?"

Yuna looks at him upset. Then she storms out of the hut and darts for the ship. 

"Yuna didn't mean…" before he could apologize, she was gone. 

Lulu stands up and looks over to Isaaru who is still sleep. 

"It's ok…she's just sad that another one is lost. Maybe she finally moved on and was short handed again." Lulu says. "Come…lets keep and an eye on Vidina." she says walking out.

Yuna gets on the Celsius and runs to the cabin. She jumps on the bed and tries to go to sleep but Rikku interrupts her with her squeaky voice.

"Yunie! Paine ran off and I don't know where she went. We have to find her. She might not survive with all of those fiends around."

Yuna frowns. For the first time in her life rage started to build her heart. Two of the people that she cared about the most had just been taken away from her by something connected to sin. Right now she didn't care about anything or anyone else. She just cared about one person right now…that was herself.

"Yunie. Did you hear me? Paine's run off."

"So what?" she asks upset. "Let her run off. It's clear that she didn't want us to go with her."

Rikku's usual goofy smile drops to a hurt expression. 

"But…what about YRP?"

"Nothing lasts forever right?"

Shocked Rikku walks over to the bed and stares Yuna in the face.

"What's wrong? Is it Jin?" 

"Isn't it obvious?"

"So has he replaced…you know who?"

"Get out of here Rikku!" Yuna shouts turning her back to her.

"I was just joking."

"Well I'm not in the mood for your senseless jokes." she says.

Rikku leaves without saying a word. She is hurt from the words. Buddy comes over the intercom.

"Hey Yuna…there's a report of a body washing up to shore in Bevelle. He has a tattoo of a Golden Dragon on his right arm. Baralai reported it in. Think it could be him?" 

Yuna jumps out of the bed and makes it to the bridge with a few seconds. 

"Lets see."

Baralai shows them a man lying in a bed. All they can see is his blonde hair a cover up to his neck. 

"He's badly hurt. Deep cuts to his back and a large one on his chest. There aren't any white mages around so I'm keeping him here until one comes. He wont make it too much longer. And he refuses to give us his name. He thinks we're kidnapping him or something like that. Do you guys know what to do with him?"

"That's looks like a missing member of our team." Buddy says. 

"Wait…we aren't sure of though. We need to come and look at him." Yuna says. 

"Fine…we'll be expecting you."

He then walks away. Buddy looks back at everyone. 

"Where's the captain?" he asks

Rikku comes up not looking so happy.

"He's still in Besaid." she says. 

"We can't leave without him." 

"Sure we can." Yuna says with a determined look. "We'll come back for him once we've dealt with Bevelle."

"Whatever you say." Buddy says starting the engine. 

Rikku looks at Yuna…something about her has changed. (Has she just gone mad or something?) she asks herself as she sits down in the other seat. They then fly off to Bevelle and ignore Brother running after them screaming for them to stop.

Baralai paces back and forward as the man lies in the bed. Several Yevonites are aiming guns at him. 

"You can atleast tell me your name." he says. 

"My name is Jin."

He freezes and stares at him shocked.

"Could you be…"

"I'm Jin of the Dragon Warriors. They call me 'The legendary Dragon Warrior Jin.'"

"I don't believe you."

Jin pulls out a small metal stick the size of a pencil. 

"With this…I can free myself from you. If I wasn't hurt, I'd have been out of here by now."

"Forgive me if I don't buy your ridiculous story."

"I take it I'm a prisoner then?"

"Only until lady Yuna comes to check you out."

"Humph." he says standing up on the bed. 

The soldiers get ready with their guns. He holds the small stick out and it magically grows in to a staff. The ends have the head of a dragon on it. Coming out of their mouths are two crystal designed blades that have three dips in the back. The soldiers start firing at will. He twirls the staff deflecting all of the bullets back at them. Then in a flash he slashes down all six of the soldiers. He then guards staring coldly at Baralai. He backs up drawing his staff.

"Humph. Do you think that staff can stop me?"

"Listen it was a mistake…you are not a hostage. We just can't you let you out of here yet. Lady Yuna is on her way to see you."

(Could he be telling the truth? Is Yuna really on her way? Last I saw her she was hurt. Unconscious even. She couldn't have gotten well so soon.)

"You're lying." he says readying the dragon staff.

"Please…you must understand I just got through with the Celsius. They're on their way."

Jin stares at him evilly still. Then he sits down on the bed and makes his staff shrink into a small pin again. Baralai stares amazed. (Even when he's hurt he's able to take out six of us in a few seconds. This Dragon clan is simple amazing. Maybe they can rid spira of these fiends.) he thinks to himself. Jin lays back down.

"Is there a bathroom around here? I'd like to take a shower."

"Uh…yes. Just take the lift up to the top floor. There should be one to your left. But…are you sure you want to do that? I mean with the scratches on your back?"

"You don't know us very well do you?"

"Huh?"

"We Dragon warriors are trained to be like dragons. Our skin is tough." he says taking off his shirt and turning around. 

The his surprise, the deep cuts are now marks.

"We also recover quickly." he says leaving. 

Jin takes the lift up to the top floor. There's a small hallway that seems to be an attic like place. At the end is another door that has a very comfortable looking bathroom. There's a window that has an entire view of Bevelle. As he steps into the shower and closes the curtain he hears a noise come from the window. Paine quietly comes through the window and pauses as a blade is a few inches away from her neck. 

"Who is it?" Jin asks.

"Gosh you're good." she says.

The blade lowers as he recognizes Paine. 

"What are you doing here? Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know. I jumped shipped for a while."

"Couldn't stand Rikku huh?" he says turning on the water.

She laughs.

"It's not that…it's just that I saw a sphere of someone in the Farplane…someone I knew…and they were in trouble. I was hoping to…"

"Find a way to get them back right?"

"Yeah but…it's impossible right?"

"Nothing is impossible to me. That's why I refuse to believe that she's gone. She's just in some place, far away."

She crosses her legs and puts her head down.

"I know…I haven't seen him and Yuna knows about him but she refuses to talk about him. I just had to find out more about what's going on down there. And why all of a sudden these spheres are starting to come up?"

"I've been wondering that myself. It's as if someone is trying to warn us of something that might just effect Spira. And it will start with the Farplane."

"I was wondering if you could help me look for more spheres."

"What, are you a sphere hunter again?"

"No…I believe I know where I can find more of these spheres."

"Oh really? Where?"

"In Guadosalam. In Raiden's hut."

"Isn't that where LeBlance is?"

"Yeah. Listen I don't want Yuna to know that we're leaving."

"Wait a minute…what do you mean WE'RE leaving?"

"I thought…you were going to help me…"

"I cannot. I'm with Yuna and the gang. Remember? We should take care of the situation here before we worry about the Farplane."

"I'm sorry…but I can't wait anymore. I have to know if there's a way to reach him. Or at least talk to him."

"A lost love?"

"Not really…" 

"Well if you don't mind I'd like to put some cloths on." he says.

"Oh…sorry." she says turning around and facing the door. 

After sighing a little he wraps up in a towel and gets out of the shower.

"So tell me…" she says sitting on the sink. "Why did you come here?"

"I don't know how I got here. The situation in Luca was too much. After Yuna got bit by this guy that looks like a normal person, she was out and I had to protect her the whole time. Too much for one person to handle. Plus this huge monster was there…"

"I know…Buddy was telling us about the situation with all of the fiends raiding the town. Are you ok?"

"Humph…and now you ask me that. I'm fine." he says 

"So…I'm asking you…will you help me look for the spheres?"

"I'm not a sphere hunter. Perhaps you should seek one. If you want it bad enough."

"But…I don't know any…" she starts before he interrupts.

"Listen…if Brother and the others are putting it second I think that you should too. That is…if you're a member of the team. If you know where I came from, you'd know that a team means a lot to me." 

"Same here. So you won't help me?"

"It's too early to tell. I'll wait until they get here."

"If you should decide to come…I'll be in Guadosalam." she says heading to the window. "Please…don't tell them where I am. This is something I need to do on my own." she says leaving.

(Something she needs to do no her own…) he repeats in his head. That's the same thing that a member of the Dragon warriors said before they were eliminated. Until this day he has not been found and little does he know that he is one of the only two original clan members left. And he's no where to be found. Although Jin isn't looking for him so they can reunite. He's looking for him so that he can kill him to avenge the death the leader and his son. (I will not rest until I find you.) he says to himself as he thinks of the half sphere in his pants pocket. There's a figure of a male from his waist to his head. The view is showing his back half. And in the distance, the leader of the Dragon Warriors is on the ground dead. A double bladed staff similar to his own is what's sticking out of his chest. He gets dressed and heads back down stairs. Baralai is sitting down thinking about something. He stands up as Jin comes in the room.

"Where are you going?" he asks. 

Jin stops at the door.

"To get something to eat. If Yuna comes here, tell her that I'm at the bar. In the center of town." he says walking out. 

He enters the bar to find several people talking and laughing with each other. He notices a guy sitting alone with a gun one side and sword on the other. His white hair gives him a flashback of a member of his past organization. The son of the leader of the Dragon Warriors. 

"It can't be…he's dead." he mumbles to himself. 

He sits down and orders a drink. Then he looks at the other guy again. The guy then turns and looks at him. His eyes widened as he saw Jin. He then stands up and draws his blade. He then points towards Jin and frowns. 

"Draw your weapon." he says.

Jin takes the cup from the waitress and sips.

"I have no interest in fighting you." he says lowly.

"If you do not draw your sword here and now I will kill you."

"That's what you think." he says drinking more. "Now get out of my face. I'm not in a good mood."

"What makes you think that I am? I'm here to avenge someone." 

"Is that so? And who is this?"

"The man you killed!"

Everyone steps back and there are several people mumbling to each other. 

"I didn't kill anyone." he says. 

"Oh yeah…well I have proof that you did."

Jin looks at the guy annoyed. 

"Listen…I don't know what you're talking about…" he says putting his cup down. 

The man smacks the cup away and everyone steps back some more. 

"Oh boy you've done it now." says a guy that's sitting at the bar. 

He has black hair that goes down to his ears and circles around his head. He has a white tank top and black pants. He also has a cocky look on his face. 

"Serphiff is gonna kick your butt. And I'll be here to witness it. You picked the wrong guy to mess with buddy. And now that we finally found you, you wanna act all innocent. Well let me tell you…he's gonna mop the floor with you." he says. 

"Serphiff is it?" Jin says sarcastically. 

(Strange…that's the same name as…) before he could think a sword comes at him. He easily dodges it and draws his blade. They clash swords several times with none of them being able to land a hit. Serphiff speeds up and strikes Jin in the chest with his blade. The hit sounded like two swords clashing and not a scratch is on Jin. Jin smiles as he sees Serphiff staring in awe. 

"What? You thought you were gonna cut me and that would be the end of it?" Jin asks feeling cocky.

(It can't be…) Serphiff says to himself as he goes into an immediate flashback. He goes back to the time when his father is standing in front of him with a rather large dagger. He then slashes a large cut in his chest and he falls to the ground holding the gash as blood poured out.

"Father…why?" he had said looking up to him.

"Soon you will understand son…soon you will become a True dragon warrior. Your skin will be harder to pierce or even break. When you become a full equipped dragon warrior, you will soon see."

As he comes back to reality a foot hits him square between the eyes. He flies into a table smashing it. 

"Oooh." the guy says holding his mouth. 

Serphiff gets up and wipes the blood off of his mouth. 

"You…you think that you're all cocky and unbeatable. I'll show you!!" he says as all of a sudden his eyes turn blood red.

Jin gasps. (It can't be…can he still be alive?) he thinks. Before he could get ready, the saber strikes him breaking his skin. He looks down at the cut that is now turning pink. (He broke the skin…) he says to himself. Then he frowns and stares at Serphiff.

"So… you want to play rough…two can play at this game." he says as his cut immediately heals. 

Serphiff gasps as Jin quickly heals. He has another flashback. In this flashback his father is facing him in his room. 

"Son…when you reach your full potential you will be able to take several hits without even getting scratched." his father says. 

"But father…would if someone were to try and betray us?"

"Relax…all of our weapons are specially made. The only way to kill another dragon warrior is to strike with direct alignment with the heart. Our weapons are specially made so that they won't do hardly any damage to our own kind."

He comes back and noticed that Jin is holding a small pin-like piece of metal in his hand. (He healed almost instantly.) Serphiff thinks as he prepares for the next attack. Jin powers up and his stick grows into his large dragon staff. 

"I'll have you know that I'm a lot faster with a staff, than I am with a blade." he says twirling it with both hands.

Then he guards.

"Are you gonna come? Or am I gonna have to go to you and beat you?"

(He has the staff! He must be the killer!) he thinks. Jin waves his staff from left to right. 

"Ok…prepare to die!" Jin yells.

In a flash he's in Serphiff's face slashing at him. He tries to block the swings but the contact from them kept knocking him back. Jin spots an opening and kicks him hard in the chest. He flies through a table. Jin laughs.

"I knew it couldn't be." he says out loud.

Serphiff stands up as his eyes remain red. 

"You…will pay for this. My father will not die in vain."

Jin stops laughing. (This guy really thinks that I killed his father.) he thinks.

"Look kid…who was your father?"

"I only know him by one name…and that's goliath."

Jin's face turns from surprised to anger. He starts to glow green as his anger builds.

"How dare you accuse me of killing my own leader!" he yells charging more.

Serphiff steps back as Jin starts to reveal his true power.

"Whoa! Serphiff! Better end this guy quick! He's getting stronger." says the little guy at the counter.

Then he leans over towards the bartender. 

"On second hand…I'll put 50,000 gil on the guy with the staff." he whispers.

"Yah!!" Jin yells as he aura sends high winds everywhere. "Bald Lightening!" he chants.

At a speed almost equal to the speed of light, he dashes in slashing Serphiff several times. As he cuts lightening strikes them both but Jin absorbs it. 

"AH!" Serphiff screams from the lightening strikes.

Jin slashes him one more time then he jumps back facing him. As he turns and lowers his head a large bolt of lightening crashes down on Serphiff covering him in a huge explosion. The wind from the explosion carried several sparks of electricity throughout the bar. 

"Serphiff!" the little man yells as he stands up and looks on. 

Yuna and Rikku enter as the fight concludes. Jin is staring forward with his back turned to Serphiff. As the smoke clears Serphiff can be seen on the ground hurt badly. He looks to be dead. Yuna looks at Jin upset.

"Did you…kill him?"

"NO…" he says turning and standing over him. "As you can see, there are no scratches on him."

"Yeah but he looks…"

"He's hurt, that's about it. I can only kill him by a direct hit to his heart." he says smiling.

"He's a member of the dragon warriors?" Rikku asks.

"It appears so."

Serphiff immediately recovers and stands to his feet.

"It is true…I am not only a member…I am…"

"You're the leader's son. And I don't see why you would think that I would betray him. I'm not that dishonorable."

"You have no excuse. Unless…you can explain this." he says holding out a forth of a sphere. 

Jin takes the sphere and watches what is on it. It shows the shadow of a man in the foreground and in the background, Goliath is on the ground with one end of a staff pierced into his chest. The end that is sticking out has a blade on the end similar to the one Jin is holding now. The only difference is that there isn't a dragon head on the end of the staff. Jin smiles.

"You are mistaken." he says.

"How is that?"

"If you notice here, my staff has a dragon's head on both ends. This one does not."

Serphiff looks again, then he looks up shocked. 

"You're right…so I've been tracking the wrong person." he says to himself.

"You've been tracking me?"

"Yeah people started to talk about the new guy that High summoner Yuna his hired on her quest to rid spira of the remaining fiends. They always mentioned your Unique weapon so I started to track you"

"I see…well…I have a piece of a sphere as well." he says taking it out and connecting it to the his piece.

It shows the same thing as Serphiff's sphere except more is in the picture. The shadow is really a man but it's too dark to tell with just half of the sphere.

"We need to find the other two pieces." Serphiff says. 

"We can't just yet." Yuna says looking away. "We have to figure out what's going on with all these raids of fiends in spira."

"But this gets us one step closer to our leader's murderer." Jin says.

"We can't." Yuna says firmly. 

Jin stares at her upset. 

"Jin…listen…one life shouldn't be more important than the lives of all of spira." 

Serphiff leans closer to Jin and whispers.

"Why do you take orders from her?"

"She's found some links to the Farplane. These links are recent and might involve Mage. I think there might be a way to get her back."

"Mage? What about my father's killer?"

"Don't worry…we'll look into it secretly as we help her."

"Done deal." he says.

"What are you too whispering about?" Yuna asks. 

"Nothing. If we're gonna help spira, we need to get on it right away." Jin says heading out. 

Serphiff heads out after him. Yuna looks at Rikku who is talking to a guy at the counter. She smiles and walks over to her.

"Rikku what are you doing?"

"Oh hey. This is Juunana. Cool name huh? He's with that guy that was fighting Jin."

"Hey there…" he says smiling.

"Hi…um…Rikku, we have to go."

"Hey aren't you with that guy? Um…Serphiff?"

"Yeah I'm with him. Why?"

"He's gonna help us with our fiend problem." Yuna says.

Juunana looks at her as if he didn't believe her. (I know Serphiff and I know he isn't doing this to help spira. Oh well, might as well go with the flow.)

"Fine…I'll join." he says. 

(Heck…I might even be able to find out what happened to Euffy.) he thinks. 

"Great." Rikku says excited. "Lets go."

Paine enters LeBlance's room and finds her getting another message by one of her female mages. 

"Can you stop with your exotic fetish for a second?" Paine asks.

LeBlance looks up surprised.

"What are you doing here?!" she asks getting up.

"I came to ask a favor of you. You are sphere hunters right?"

"Yes…why?"

"I found this sphere…I was wondering if you could help me find anymore like it?"

"So…you want to join my organization? What about Yuna?"

"What about her? I've decided to leave them for a while."

"Fine…but if you want my help, you have to take orders from me. I'm the leader. Understood?"

"Yeah." Paine says rolling her eyes. "Now can we get started?"

"In a minute love. Ummm…yes." she says as the mage continues to message her back.

"You know what? Never mind ok?" she says leaving.

LeBlance gets up annoyed.

"Ok, ok. I'll get started…for a price." 

Paine folds her arms and sighs. 

"How much?"

"100,000 gil."

"What?!" 

"I'm the only sphere hunter in spira right now."

"But I'm helping you hunt for it."

"Even so…my life is still in danger." she says holding out her hand. 

"Fine…" she says handing her the money. "Now can we get started?"

"Sure thing!" she says taking the money excited.

She gets a fancy machine out and slips the sphere in. After typing in a few words a map of spira is projected in the form of a three dimensional grid. On the grid, yellow spots begin to flash. There are almost two hundred of them. 

"These are spheres similar to the one you have." she says pointing to a blinking dot.

Paine spots one a piece of land that she doesn't recognize. 

"Where's this?" she asks pointing to the dot on the piece of land.

"Oh…that's the unclaimed lands. Noojie said that those lands weren't claimed by none of the three major groups. Meaning New Yevon, the Youth League and the Machine Faction. He said that these lands were once the home of a clan that kept to themselves most of the time. I think there were called the dragon clan. Or something like that."

"Ok…lets start there."

"Wait!" she says grabbing her arm. "You can't go anywhere looking like that. You have to have a make over." she says. 

Paine looks at her silent and insulted. 

About two hours later Paine comes out of LeBlance's room with a completely different look. Her hair is the same black color as Lulu's, her top was a same except that her red straps were gone. Her bottom is a dark purple skirt and some black thigh high boots. She looks at her cloths and frowns. 

"Ugh! What was wrong with my other cloths?"

"We may be sphere hunters but we are still women love. We should dress like them too." LeBlance says fanning herself. 

She rolls her eyes and grabs her sword. 

"Come one…lets go." 

"Right." LeBlance says heading for the hover jet. 

"Where are your other two stooges?" Paine asks

"They are off some where for Noojie. So we are heading to the unclaimed lands?"

"That's right." she says. 

(I hope I can find more about you…) she says to herself. 

Tidus sits down and Mage stops running to see what was wrong. 

"Why did you stop? There are fiends everywhere." she asks. 

"I…am tired. I don't have any more energy left." he says. 

Braska fires away two small fiends as they try to attack him. 

"We cannot stop here." he says. "They know we're coming. If we sit in one place then they'll kill us easily. Lets move." he directs. 

Mage shoots for Braska and Tidus struggles to keep up. A large drake with three horns below his bottom lip, spots them and block their path. Tidus looks up shocked.

"What is that?" he asks.

"I have no idea." Braska says staring it down. 

It fires a large holy beam at them. It's so big that they couldn't avoid it. Mage jumps in front of them and stretches out her arms. 

"Ah!" she screams as the energy was a lot to absorb.

She stares at the monster and her eyes turn light blue. She then powers up and fires a large dark beam at him knocking him over. (Whoa…) Tidus says to himself as he watches her. (She may look like Yuna…but she's a lot stronger…)

"Attack him now!" Braska orders. 

Tidus grabs his blade and runs in with blitz ace. Braska summons Anima and orders it to do "Oblivion". Mage powers up another large dark beam attack and shoots it. All of them his the monster at the same time. It roars in pain and turns into pyre flies. Mage turns around to them as they give her a look of question. 

"I know…you're probably wondering what in the world am I right?" 

"I was kind of wondering." Tidus says rubbing the back of his head. 

"I'm a Dragon Warrior." she says. 

Braska smiles.

"I always thought that they were a myth." he says.

"No…we just kept to our selves in the valley of devils. It's a really dangerous place. They have spirits there that can posses you and turn you into a very powerful evil essence. I never knew what cause those evil spirits to come but I thought that if I became a summoner and got rid of sin, then the spirits would leave too."

"So that's what's in the unclaimed lands." Braska says.

"Yeah…" she says. 

"Well…lets go. The castle is in the distance. I can see it from here." Braska says. 

They sprint on through the woods and then finally reach the castle. It's about four stories high and there's a statue of a chimera on the left stairway and a king drake on the right side. 

"This castle has a very dark aura." Mage says. 

Braska looks at the statues as they seem to move and face them. 

"I think that this is a temple mainly for drakes and chimeras." he says. 

"Well…if the summoner is in here then we have to go in." Mage says. 

Tidus stares at the temple and starts to shake inside. (Something isn't right. I don't know what it is but something isn't right.) he thinks. 

They head inside to find that there is an empty space. There are two doors, one on the right and one on the left. Then in the back of the room is a stairway that leads to the next floor. Tidus looks around with his blade ready.

"Uh…it's kind of quiet in here don't you think?"

Mage turns to him looking annoyed. 

"If you keep up the noise then maybe you'll wake up any fiends that are sleeping her." she says. "This place has an echo."

Braska smiles.

"It seems like it's too late for that." he says lighting a fire at the tip of his point finger. 

Several drakes have circled them all growling as if they haven't had anything to eat. Mage draws her sword. Braska raises his hands as if he is summoning a spell.

"When I shoot, you strike understood?" he whispers.

"Gotcha." Tidus says ready.

"Wait…we don't know how many of them there are."

"I count…seven." Tidus says grinning. 

Braska fires a flare towards the ground and it spreads in the shape of a circle. Seconds later fire shoots out under every drake knocking them back. The sound seemed to wake up the whole castle as several drakes, ice drakes and fire drakes. Fire and ice breath spread everywhere causing them all to scatter. Mage is knocked up against the wall by a power tailspin attack. She shoots an Ultima beam that hits more than one drake killing four of them. As they die and the pyre flies vanish eight more shoot down from the upper level. Mage frowns backing up to get some room. A drake bites her in the back smashes her into Tidus. He gets up and slashes down six drakes. Twelve more shoot down the stairs. They're bigger and seemed to have bones coming out of the side do their heads. Braska burns the ice drakes away and then kills the fire drakes with ice magic. As they die twice the amount comes down the stairs. Mage fires a large energy blast at the stairs killing three of the drakes that are in the group of twelve that come down. 

"Great! What was that?!" Tidus asks. 

"It's called Dragon blast." she says striking down another drake. 

Tidus does a cartwheel evading a tail swing and then jumps up slashes down another one. Four more comes down the stairs. Braska casts holy killing fifteen drakes. As they die. Thirty more head down the stairs. 

"What's going on?!" Mage yells fending off three of them. 

"They just keep coming." Tidus says killing three more. 

"Try to make it to one of the rooms. Head to the one on the left! I'll cover you!" he says blasting firaga at the stairs. "Whatever you do, Don't kill the drakes. I take it that this is the work of the spirited one!" 

Mage strikes at several of them making them step back. Then she runs to the door on the right and tries to open it but it's too heavy. Tidus rushes over and helps her. As he stands behind her he feels her skin on his chest. (she's just as warm as Yuna…but she can't be…it's not…her.) the door finally opens and she runs in. He comes back to his senses and heads in as well. 

"Braska! Come on." he yells.

Braska blasts them all with flare again and then runs into the door. They all force it shut and then begins to rest. 

"Can he summon that quickly?" Mage asks. 

"I don't know…" Braska says frowning.

(I know.) Tidus thinks making a fist. (I know that it's either Yu Yevon or Seymour that's behind this.) Tidus looks up and spots a chimera staring at them. 

"Uh…I don't that's the biggest problem right now." he says lifting his sword. 

They all turn around to find a large Chimera starting at them. It has three heads and two tails that are the snakes. One snake is white and one snake is black. The white snake casts mighty guard on the chimera.

"This is not good." Tidus says guarding.

Mage frowns and gets ready. Braska looks at both of them.

"Are you ready?" he asks. 

"As I'll ever be." Tidus says.

"Go!" 

"Me first!" Mage yells leaping into the air. 

Wings sprout from her back as she folds her arms. Then she darts for the chimera. 

"Enchanted wings." she calls.

The wings wrap around the fiend and she grabs her blade grins.

"Now I'll cut you up!" she yells slashing it several times.

What she doesn't realize is that the snake tails are evading her every move. She hits the chimera for heavy damage causing it to fall down. Braska dispels its mighty guard and Tidus steps up.

"Time for a blitz ace." he says charging. 

Then he performs his blitz ace for heavy damage. As soon as he jumps back towards Braska and Mage, the chimera falls down hurt. The white snake uses a double cast of curaga healing the chimera back to full strength. 

"Oh no!" Tidus says shocked.

"It just healed itself." Braska says.

"I'll fix that." Mage says charging up. 

She then casts silence on the chimera. It roars as it's immune to the spell. The black snake then hits Mage with thundaga. It doesn't do much damage but the force from the blast knocks her against the wall hard. She staggers to get up. Tidus dashes in and hits it with delay buster. The white snake counters by using haste and then knocks Tidus away with its hands. 

"Man…what's with this guy?!" he asks.

"Kill the snakes." Braska says. 

"Right." Mage answers charging forward. 

She dodges a swing and leaps over its head and chops off the white snake. The black snake counters by ramming it's head into her stomach knocking her back near the door. The white snake immediately comes back and casts mighty guard again. 

"Great. That was no good." Tidus says.

The dragon head begins to charge as the other two heads start firing balls of lightening and fire. Mage jumps in front of them and takes the lightening and fire attacks. Then she strikes the fiend hard in the chest cutting it open. The white snake counters with curaga healing it back to full health. 

"Come on guys! We were better off with the drakes. We can't beat this guy. Lets get out of here!" Tidus yells. 

"I agree." Mage says breathing hard. 

"I'll tell you what, you guys go. I'll keep him busy until you get out." Braska says.

"No good. We have to move together or the drakes will pick us apart one by one." Tidus says. 

"Fine then we all go together." Mage says. 

Before they could think of something else, Aaron and Jecht come in from the drakes as well. 

"So…they chased you in here too huh?" Jecht asks smiling. 

"What is that?" Aaron asks shocked. 

"It's a chimera but it's not the same as the other ones." Tidus says. 

Mage looks around.

"Where's Cloud?"

"Lets talk about it after we settle this." Aaron says.

"So this is where all of those fiends are coming from!" Tidus says. 

"I must warn you…" Aaron says. "There was no summoner at the other castle! So there might not be a spirited one here." 

"Lets worry about that later." Tidus says.

"Whatever's summoning these fiends is upstairs. If we all go at once then we can reach the top." Mage says. 

Braska dodges a lightening bolt easily and then zaps the chimera with Ultima. The white snake counters again with a double cast of curaga and shell. Aaron frowns.

"Does that tail always do that?" he asks. 

"Yes…" Braska says frowning. "And if we stay here it will surely wear us out and then…kill us."

"What do we do then?" Jecht asks. 

"Power in front! Youth in the back. Lord Braska…stay in the middle." Aaron yells.

Mage and Tidus jump in front of Braska and Aaron and Jecht face the door. As they open it Braska casts Flare into the crowd of Drakes killing all thirty six of them. As they die seventy two more rush down from upstairs after them. Jecht and Aaron cut there way through towards the stairs. Mage and Tidus struck down every drake that jumped at the group. Braska shot down several with fire and ice. They reach the upstairs area and the drakes stopped coming. To their surprise, the floor is empty. 

"I don't get it." Mage says putting her sword away.

As she sits down on the floor her hair turns black like Yunas'. Tidus gasps staring at her. She looks at him alarmed.

"What is it?!" she says drawing her sword. 

"Your hair…" he says.

"Oh…" she says putting it away again. "It's really black."

Aaron rubs his chin. 

"I see what you mean." he says. 

Jecht rubs his neck. 

"What are you two talking about?" he asks. 

"She is the spitting image of Yuna." Aaron answers.

Braska smiles.

"Really?" he asks excited. "My daughter looks like her?"

Mage looks at them confused.

"Who is Yuna?" she asks. 

"It's a long story. We'll talk about it once we get to spira." Tidus says with confidence. 

"Lets get out of here first." Aaron says. 

"Strange…there's nothing here." Jecht says.

"Just because you cannot see it doesn't mean the wind isn't there." Braska says charging a firaga. 

Mage gets up and looks around.

"I sure don't see anything."

"Observe." Braska says firing it towards the back of the room. 

As it hits nothing a fiend appears and dies. 

"What? They can do that?"

"I've never know them to before." Aaron says drawing his sword. "Humph…there are many…"

Several drakes appear ready to attack. Fire breath and ice breath fly their way from all directions. Braska blocks it all with his shell spell. Mage leaps ahead of the group and attracts several of them to her. 

"Wait! Don't leave the group!" Tidus yells. 

She strikes them all down. This time none appeared to replace them. A loud crash is heard from the bottom floor and the castle begins to shake. Everyone looks at the stairs in question. The large chimera spots them as it comes up the stairs. Aaron and Jecht both back up and everyone one else begins attacking it. As it gets up to ground level the white snake heals all of the damage that he body took and the tiger head slashes at them with the one arm that it can control. They all dodge and keep moving back. Aaron frowns and hit's the dragon head with his shooting star attack. The whole monster falls back. Even when it's down the white snake heals the entire body recovering all the damage that was lost. 

"It's impossible." Mage says. "We can't beat it."

"Everyone…focus on the white snake." Jecht directs. They all attack the white snake. Aaron finishes with a shooting star knocking it's head off. All of a sudden, the white snake's head comes back.

"No way." Tidus says stepping back afraid. "There's no beating this guy."

"Run!" Braska orders as he heads up the stairs towards the third floor. As Tidus passes him Braska blows up the stairs using flair and blocking the chimera's pathway up. The third floor is huge. It looks to be a sanctuary with no seats. 

"Wow…this place is huge." Tidus says. 

Aaron walks up to the wall at the back of the room. 

"It looks like there's no spirited one here after all." Tidus says. 

"No…they were here. It's just that we were anticipated." Aaron says. 

"What?" Tidus asks.

"It's true…we were ambushed on the way to the other castle. Yunalesca took cloud and headed this way. So that's why we're here." Jecht says.

"This window is cold." Aaron says.

They all turn their attention to the large mirror that has the picture of the large chimera on it.

"What's your point?" Jecht asks.

Aaron swings his blade into the glass and makes a loud noise. The chimera is roaring downstairs and seems to be fading away. Mage draws her blade and slashes the mirror as well. Everyone seems to get the picture and attack the mirror. The glass finally brakes revealing a wooden hallway that's only a few feet in length. Mage looks into it and then looks at everyone else. 

"It looks ok." she says.

"Lets get out of here." Tidus says looking back to see if the chimera has found a way up. 

Aaron and Jecht both start down the hallway and everyone follows them. As they reach the end a ladder is leading downward. 

"Do you think this will lead into a trap?" Aaron asks. 

"Never know until we go." Braska says leaping down.

"Wait!" Aaron said trying to stop him. 

They all jump down and then everything goes black. Even though they can feel their eyes open they can't see anything. 

All of a sudden they are able to see and again and they notice that they are at the back of the castle. There's a cliff with a path leading downward close by. It's the only way to progress. Tidus looks over the edge of the cliff and to his surprise it seemed to be a dejavu.

(It's like it is on spira. The water on the left and on the right. It looks like the Farplane did when I was looking at it from Guadosalam. But…there are dark clouds all over the place…why? What is this place?)

"They went this way. We should get going." Aaron says. 

Mage sits down and frowns. 

"We don't know anything about this place. Without a guide we'd be absolutely nowhere. I don't think it's safe considering what we have to lose." she says. 

"She is right Aaron." Braska says. 

"Come on. If we sit here then we'll never get cloud and we'll never get out of here." Tidus protests. "And plus…if we stick together, we won't get hurt."

Braska laughs.

"You sound like Jecht ten years ago." he says. "Very well then. I will go with you." 

"Me too." Tidus says.

Jecht folds his arms. 

"I guess I'll go too." 

Mage stands up and frowns. 

"Well…I guess I can't stand here by myself." she says. 

"Everyone…come." Aaron says staring down the hill.

Fiends cover the path down the hill. Everyone stands at the top and stare down. 

"Whatever's down there, that's where we have to go through them to get there. And I'm sure that that's where they took Cloud." Braska says.

"Then what are we waiting for? Lets go!" Jecht says drawing a blade. 

Aaron smiles. Mage looks at everyone and then thinks to herself. (They could help me…maybe I can see you again…in…spira) 

"Mage?" Tidus goes noticing her rather depressed look. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah…" she says smiling. "Lets go."

They rush down into the pathway of fiends slaughtering them one by one.

***

(Yuna: I wanted to continue my search. My search to find a way to see you again…a way to end…this nightmare. But I had to put all of that on hold. Jin has brought some friends to the group, Paine is gone and for some reason spira is being over run by fiends. For some reason…the fayth have begun dreaming again and summoner are able to summon the aeons once again. I too….am able to summon aeons. However, after what I've done I don't feel worthy enough to be protected by their power. After I figure out what's going on I'll come back looking for you…I promise. But right now I've been asked to save spira again. So that's what I'll do. Hehehe…Paine, Rikku and Jin think that I'm a push over but I can't watch helpless people die. So that's my plan now.)

Paine pushes through several bushes heading towards the blinking light on the device that LeBlance gave her. LeBlance is slowly trailing a distance behind her. She turns around looking at LeBlance annoyed.

"Why are you way back there?"

"I know you. You're the type of person that will cut my throat when you get what you want."

Paine laughs hiding the hurt feeling from the comment. 

"Come on. I'm not gonna bite." she says.

"Yeah right love. I'm not stupid. I want to see my Noojie again and I know if I get within a foot of you I'll be killed. I know you don't like me."

"Look…I'm not going to kill you ok?"

"Just get the sphere so we can leave."

Paine sighs and then heads forward towards the sphere. As she gets to it a girl is seen sitting by a tree and holding a sphere in here hand. She looks up to them as they come. She stands up and frowns.

"Go away." she demands. 

They stop a few feet away from her.

"Not until we get the sphere." Paine says with her sword by her side.

"You two don't belong here. Get out."

"Not until we get the sphere." Paine repeats getting her sword ready. 

The girl tosses the sphere at them.

"Take it and get out of here."

LeBlance looks at the locater as Paine bends over to get the sphere. She notices that the blinking light is still a few feet away from them. 

"Uh…Paine I think there's something…"

"Be quiet. You didn't want to come here so now that we have what we want lets go."

"But…"

"Come on." she says starting to leave.

Then they hear evil laughter all of a sudden. The girl fades into the wind and Raiden appears holding a sphere. 

"Is this what you were looking for?"

LeBlance smiles relieved. 

"Raiden? What are you doing here?"

"I came here to save you LeBlance." 

"What?" 

Paine stares at the sphere in her hand. All of a sudden she notices that she can't move. Her body turns around and faces LeBlance. 

(No! What's happening to me?! Why can't I control my body?) she thinks. 

"So…you sniffed me out." Paine says grinning.

"What?!" LeBlance says shocked and heart broken. 

"That's right. I came here first because no one would come here looking for you."  
LeBlance gasps hurt and shocked. 

(There's no way I can beat her. What do I do?) she thinks.

Paine kicks her to the ground and she holds her stomach in pain. She looks up to Paine with a face of complete fear. Paine raises her sword and just as she swings Raiden throws his arm in the way and blocks the sword with his bare arm. LeBlance stares shocked. He then knocks Paine into a tree and offers his hand to LeBlance.

"You do have a ship or way out don't you?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then hurry. She won't be out for long."

"Right." LeBlance says clueless. 

She leads him the ship. As they left Raiden takes the possession off of Paine. She comes to and looks around.

(Raiden…I will not let you get away with this.) she says to herself as she runs off after them. 

Yuna shoots down several elements with her blue bullet attacks. Jin runs up to the shops in as fiends are attacking children. He cuts them down and kneels next to the two little boys. 

"You guys hide behind this counter. We'll get rid of these guys." he says.

"Look out!" Rikku shouts as a Basilisk slashes Jin's back. 

He turns unharmed and strikes it down with several hits. Large plant fiends storm in from the woods. An aeon comes out of nowhere and uses energy blast to wipe them all out. Jin stares at the aeon confused. 

"Yuna! What is going on? I thought that you couldn't summon anymore."

Rikku smacks him in the head. Then she leans towards him.

"You aren't supposed to let everyone know!" she whispers. 

Yuna turns to him and frowns. All of a sudden the people of Killika stop running. Dona looks at them in shock. Juunana and Serphiff strike down the last of the fiends.

"Strange…they all seem to stop coming now." Juunana says scratching his head. 

They all crowd around Yuna with faces of no hope. 

"Is it true? You…can no longer summon aeons?"

She puts her arms behind her and looks away embarrassed. Serphiff stares not knowing what's going on.

"I…"

"Tell us the truth." Dona says putting her hand on her hip. "You do know that he fayth are dreaming once again. Why can't you summon?"

"I…I…" she says before she runs off towards the docks for the airship. 

Jin looks at everyone. Rikku looks at Dona upset.

"Nice going. Atleast Yunie did defeat sin. Unlike you. Which her a way better summoner. Whether she can summon now or not." she says running after her. 

"Um…what just happened?" Juunana asks.

"Beats me." Serphiff says.

"Lets go." Jin says heading for the ship as well.

"Wait!" screams a faint voice. 

They all head for the ship. Dona waits as LeBlance comes up. She looks as if she has seen a ghost. Her dress is badly torn and there are cuts all over body. 

"You need help. What happened?"

"No! I have to find Yuna…where is she?"

"She went towards the docks. If you hurry you can catch her."

As they all reach the plane, Yuna is sitting in a chair with her face in her hands. Jin walks up to her. 

"I didn't mean for this to happen. But you're leaving us in the dark here. We all didn't go on your pilgrimage."

"You went on one didn't you?!" she shouts. "Wasn't SHE a summoner?"

"Yeah. But then we knew the fayth were on our side. Now we don't know anything. As far as I remember, the fayth were dreaming."

"I…tried to summon them but…they wouldn't come."

Serphiff and Juunana head to the back and Rikku sits down next to her. 

"It's ok Yunie. We can do this without the aeons. Lets go talk to Lulu about this. I'm sure she knows what's going on. Don't you think?"

Yuna looks up not hiding her tears. 

"Yes."

Jin looks behind him as if he senses danger. 

"Someone's here…" he says. 

"Everyone…LeBlance is requesting to speak with us. Should we let her on?" Buddy announces.

"What should we do Yuna?" Brother asks.

She shakes her head.

"Let her on." Brother orders. 

As she comes on Jin turns his head. Yuna and Rikku both gasp. LeBlance falls on her face unconscious. In the cabin she comes to and jumps at her surroundings. 

"Yuna?! Where are you?!" she yells.

"Right here." Yuna says sitting beside her.

Rikku sits down on the other side of her. Jin stares in her face with an evil look. 

"What happened to you?" Yuna asks.

"It was Paine…she wanted to my help to find…" before she said another word she looked at Yuna hurt. "Is it true that you all are planning to kill me?"

"If we were planning t kill you I'd have done it already." Jin says folding his arms.

"Quiet you big meany." Rikku says putting a hand on LeBlance's shoulder. "We are not planning to kill you." she says.

Yuna smiles.

"Why would you think that?"

"You can't let Paine back on this ship." she says grabbing Yuna's hand. "You can't do it."a

"What?" Yuna says alarmed. "What do you mean? Paine is our friend."

"No she isn't. Trust me. She is the one that hurt me."

Jin looks over his shoulder and then back at her. Rikku feels her forehead.

"Are you sure you're feeling fine? I mean that doesn't sound like Paine." she says.

"Trust me…it was her. She…hurt Raiden too. It was horrible. I don't know where he went but I'm telling you can't let Paine anywhere close to you guys."

Jin studies her face.

(For some reason it doesn't seem like she's making it up. And something is wrong here. I can feel a weird presence.) he thinks. 

Serphiff comes in with an evil look and eyes Jin. Jin shakes his head in agreement and follows him out of the room. LeBlance stares confused. Yuna puts her hand on LeBlance's shoulder.

"I'm sure she was just teasing. Maybe you should give up sphere hunting."

"Yeah." Rikku says. "No offense but…I don't think you can handle yourself out there."

"She's right." says a low female voice. 

Everyone looks towards the bar and spots Paine holding Barkeep's head. She has an evil look about her. They all gasp. Paine jumps to the upper level and stares at LeBlance. 

"You don't have Raiden to save you now." she says. 

"Paine! What are you doing?!" Yuna shouts. 

"Shut up." Paine says turning to her. "I've come here for the other two spheres you have. Unless you want to end up like barkeep over there, I'd give them up." 

Rikku stands up and frowns drawing her two daggers.

"You have a lot of explaining to do Paine!"

"Is this your true side?" Yuna asks lowering her head.

"It is." Paine says without any emotion. 

She then looks over to LeBlance.

"You know…you talk to much." she says.

Then she stabs her sword into LeBlance's gut.

"Ah!" LeBlance screams as she spits blood onto Paine's arm.

"Ew." Paine says emotionless. 

"Paine!" Yuna shouts. "I will never forgive you for this!" 

(Paine: No! Yuna! It's not me. It's Raiden! He is behind this!)

"She became one of our good friends and now you want to kill her! You're going down." Rikku says.

"If you can take me." Paine says guarding. 

Yuna draws her guns. She then acts reluctant to shoot. 

"Humph. What's wrong? You can't shoot me?" she says kicking Yuna into the dresser. 

Rikku chargers her. She smirks and catches Rikku in mid-air by her collar and slings her into the wooden railing. She goes through and lands through a wooden table on the lower level. Paine then feels a sharp pain in her foot. As she looks to Yuna who is getting up LeBlance shoots a small charge of lightening at her. Paine takes the lightening hit and smiles.

"That the best you got?" she asks. 

She rushes up to the Yuna.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood. Or else I'd have used a sword." she says.

She then grabs Yuna up by her collar and charges energy. Like lightening she smashes her with several punches. Then she spins and kicks her through the wooden railing and onto the lower level. Rikku mixes a flash bomb with a hand grenade and tosses it at Paine. She smacks it back with her sword and blows Rikku behind the counter. All of a sudden three gun shots are fired. All three of them hit Paine in the side, the stomach and the leg. She looks over to the door and Serphiff is staring at her with his pistol aimed at her head. A large gust of wind blows by her face and her blade breaks in half. Jin appears guarding in front of Serphiff. Juunana steps up and grins.

"I call this, Blitz Ace Mark IV." he says spinning a blitz ball on his finger. 

Fire surrounds the ball as he kicks it up several times with one foot. Then he spins tornado kicking the ball towards her. She dodges the ball but the explosion sends her into a table burning her back a little. She staggers to get up. Then she jumps out of the window. Jin stands straight and shrinks his staff. 

"You fight well." Serphiff says putting away his gun. 

"That's the way it always is." Jin says grinning. 

Juunana runs over to Rikku who is knocked out. He checks her pulse then picks her up and starts up stairs. Jin leaps up to the top floor and notices that Paine is still breathing. She's sweating and blood and pouring out of her stomach. He grabs a blanket and rips it in half. Then he uses it to stop the bleeding. 

"This should hold until Yuna can wake up. You know…you should really consider something other than sphere hunting." he says 

Yuna comes to and holds her head. 

"It can't be…" she says lowly. 

"Yuna…come up here. She's still alive." 

Brother enters the room.

"Yuna! Are you ok?!" he asks alarmed. 

"Now you show up?" Juunana says.

"Hey! I was…fixing the ship. Yuna…"  
"I'm fine." she says. 

She looks up at Jin who is staring her down. His arms are folded and eyes reveal anger. Yuna goes up to the top area and heals LeBlance. 

"I think she should go back to her place. She can't stay here." Jin says.

"What? Why?" Yuna asks.

"Jin's right. She'll only be a burden to us." Serphiff says.

"Yeah…how are we supposed to fight if we have to keep looking over our shoulder to see if she's ok?" Juunana asks. 

LeBlance sits up looking depressed. 

"You shouldn't try and walk. You're hurt badly." Serphiff says. 

"Humph…just drop me off in Guadosalam. At least there I can be with someone who needs me." she says standing up. 

Only Yuna shows regret for her comment. 

"If that's how you wanna handle the truth. Have it your way. Brother?" Jin says looking to him.

Brother jumps confused.

"Uh…Yuna?" he says.

"Fine…lets take her home." she says. 

"Right." he says heading for the door.

Buddy comes on speaker.

"More fiends have appeared. Dona is requesting help." he says.

Jin pulls out staff.

"Time for more fun." he says.

Serphiff pulls out his saber and his gun.

"Yeah. Lets go." he says.

Juunana pulls out his Blade.

"Nothing is complete without the Luster Blade." he says

Rikku comes to and sits. 

"Paine…where is she?" she asks.

"She's gone." Yuna says.

"Glad to see you're ok." Juunana says.

She smiles and stands.

"Just peachy." she says.

"Excuse us, but we have Killika under attack." Jin says.

Yuna stands up.

"LeBlance, we'll take you home as soon as we're done here." she says making a fist. "We'll stop these raids once and for all."

"Yeah." Rikku says jumping up. 

Before they could move Jin and Serphiff are gone. They all run out and find Dona trying to hold the fiends at the gate. The last of her aeons are being devoured by the large man eater plants. She calls them away and they fiends trample over her attacking the people of the village. Yuna and Rikku run in to help her and the others spread out. Jin spots two lupines attacking a young girl and charges for them. He slashes them down. Serphiff shoots down several tigers and giant bees. Juunana finds and open place and begins slashing down fiends. Yuna shoots several fiends and then grabs Dona under her arms to help her up. A flame breath attack knocks them both away. Rikku strikes the drake down in her dark night sphere. Jin darts for Rikku and Paine lands in his path. 

"Jin wait…it's a trap." she shouts. 

He stares at her confused. Then he charges her.

"Wait! I'm not evil!" she yells. 

He swings his staff slashing her hard in the stomach. She hit's the ground hard bleeding from the cut. Serphiff dashes in with his sabre. 

"And now for the final blow!" he yells. 

"No!" Yuna yells rushing in. 

As he swings she leaps in front of Paine and is cut deep. She yells in pain and hit's the ground. Fiends crowd the village. Rikku and Dona both stare in awe at what just happened. Serphiff frowns but shows no remorse. 

"Fool. Why did you do that?" he asks.

"She's not evil." Yuna says. 

Paine smiles. 

(Paine: Yes…ugh…at least now I can start my recovery.

Raiden: Not yet.

Paine: What?!

Raiden: Hahahahahahahahaha. There is still much you must do so that not even Yuna will believe you.

Paine: No!)

Paine gets up and grins. 

"You idiot. I can't believe you fell for that." she says holding her side. 

Yuna stares at her in disbelief. 

"You can't be serious." Yuna says faintly. 

Jin frowns upset. Then he charges a dark dragon blast and fires it at Paine. The explosion destroys the dock area and sends everyone in the water. After the smoke cleared the city is seen in the distance. Fiends are everywhere and people are dieing left and right. Jin snarls at Yuna. 

"That was a ridiculous move Yuna! Paine is evil. Can't see that?!"

"I won't believe it. Not yet." she says moaning from the Paine. 

"Serphiff, do you still remember how to do the orb?"

"Sure do." he says with a smirk.

"Hey guys we could use some help over here!" Juunana screams fending off fiends left and right.

Jin leaps up out of the water and dashes towards the center of town. Serphiff grabs Yuna and leaps onto land. Then he runs after Jin. Jin looks around and notices that most of the fiends are staring at him now. He smiles as Serphiff is seen in the distance. He charges his energy. Then he stretches his arms releasing a large orb or lightening that starts to consume the entire village. Serphiff jumps into it mixing water inside. All of the fiends of the fiends are fried until they turn into pyre flies. The buildings are all destroyed but the people that weren't killed by the fiends are all on the ground unconscious. Jin calms his energy and the orb shrinks. Then he looks around. The fiends have suddenly disappeared. Rikku jumps up and runs over to hug Jin. She jumps into his arms. 

"You did it! That was a great move! What was it called?!" she asks excited. 

"It's called Liquid Lightening. We learned it back in the Dragon Clan." he says. 

"It's not over yet." Serphiff says as he steps in front of Jin.

Paine is standing on the fence towards the woods. She holds her side as the blood is still pouring out. They are too far back to notice that she is crying. 

"Now you will see the true power that I have. The power that I've been holding back for two years. Rikku…I want you to know that I never liked you at all. I have always hated how stupid you are and your clueless nature."

"Clueless?" Rikku says confused.

"See what I mean? You are retarded Rikku. And so are those ridiculous Albhed."

She gasps hard as the words seem to strike her in the heart. 

"You take that back you big meany!"

"Only if you can make me." 

"My pleasure!" Jin says extending his staff. 

"Humph…you may be able to beat me but can you save everyone in Killika?" she asks raising her hand. 

Seconds later several more fiends rush in from the woods. 

"Oh no!" Rikku says alarmed. 

Jin pushes her to get her attention. 

"Rikku! Get Yuna and get on the ship. We'll get as many people as we can."

"No! We can run ourselves." one of the people says. 

He then starts leading people towards the ship. Jin then begins blasting lightening bolts at the fiends as they come. Serphiff begins shooting them with his gun. Juunana grabs Yuna and heads towards the ship. As they pile in Jin and Serphiff back up until they reach the ship as well. Then Buddy takes off into the air. Paine stares at them as they leave. She wipes her eyes. Then she retreats into the woods. 

Juunana lays Yuna down on the bed and she looks up at everyone's disappointment. Jin paces back and forward and Serphiff stares her down evilly. 

"Yuna…what were you thinking?" he asks.

"I…just can't except…"

"That's your problem!" Jin shouts. "What's wrong with you?! That was a clean kill. Right now Killika is full of fiends and you know why? Because PAINE is out summoning them! We could've gotten rid of her for good! We could've saved some of those people."

"To be honest…Rikku did better than you this time Yuna. You're slacking." Juunana says. 

"Hey…what is that supposed to mean?" Rikku asks.

"You just don't seem like the fighting type to me." 

"Humph." she says sitting on the middle bed. 

Yuna looks up to Jin. He is the only one in the group that she really likes. Him being mad at her is like Tidus himself being upset and that's something she didn't want. 

"Yuna…do you know what your problem is?" 

"Yes…" she says sitting up. "I'm weighing you down right?"

"No! You are too weak! We could've killed Paine and then these people wouldn't be stuck on this airship wondering where their family members are and if those that are left behind are still alive. WHEN ARE YOU GONNA STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF?! You just can't except the fact that Paine was evil all along can you? From what I understand, you used to care about the people of spira! I guess that's thing of the past as well! Just like your spiky little friend." he says storming out of the cabin.

She gasps at the last comment not hiding her tears. Dona watches not saying a word. 

"Yuna…don't take what he says seriously." Serphiff says. "He really hates defeat."

"Was it…really my fault?" she asks crying.

"You shouldn't have jumped in the way. She is evil now. Probably was evil before now. He is right about one thing. You shouldn't think it's not true just because YOU can't except it. It will only get everyone killed. If eliminating Paine is the way to keep the calm in spira then it must be done."

Rikku goes out after Jin. Juunana goes down to the bar to fix a drink. LeBlance stares at Yuna seeing how hurt she is. 

"He can't talk to you like that. You are the high summoner." she says. 

"No…he's right." Yuna says wiping away more tears. " I shouldn't be so weak. Maybe I should be like I was before…two years ago."

"No Yunie. You don't want to be a slave for spira. You should be free to do what you want." Rikku says holding her hand.

"I agree." Dona says. "Especially sense you can not summon aeons anymore." 

Those words stung her as well but they didn't hurt half as bad as Jin's. He was her crutch for the hurt she felt for Tidus. Now that he is angry she has no one to lean on. 

"Yuna…are you ok?" Juunana asks.

Serphiff stands up straight and looks at Yuna. 

"Everyone, I think it would be best we left Yuna to herself for a little while."

"I agree." Juunana says leaving.

Dona leaves behind Serphiff. LeBlance falls asleep. Yuna then cries without holding anything in. 

Jin sits in the engine room thinking to himself.

(I was foolish to think such a person could find a way to get you back to me…Mage…I've been trying so hard to find a way to get you back. To find a way to avenge our leader's death. But every time I get close to it…or find a lead, this girl seems to screw it all up. Now spira's in a mess again and she wants me to help her. Yet she can't even help herself. If only there's a way I could get some kind of answer…

Mage's voice: Remember? It's spira's happiness that is depending on this trip.

Jin: Wha?!

Mage's voice: After we defeat sin…then we can really relax and have a family together. In a world of peace. I wouldn't want it any other way. You want peace for all of spira too right? 

Jin: I thought…

Mage: Remember, as a summoner, the people come before our own life. It's a guardian's job to see to the life of a summoner.

Don't worry Mage…I will find a way to get you back. You shouldn't have died the way you did.)

"Hiya." Rikku sys smiling.

He looks at her face and grins.

"Why are you always in such a good mood?"

"Um…I don't know? Maybe because…someone has to?" she says confused.

He laughs and closes his eyes pretending to meditate.

"Why were you so mean to Yunie a few minutes ago?"

"I don't know…I guess I just don't like weak minded people."

"Weak minded?"

"Yeah. See Yuna is too weak to fight this type of fight. Whoever did this was planning it for a long time. They know how weak Yuna is and they used her emotions against her."

"But…Yunie defeated sin. Plus when she was a summoner, she did everything that everyone wanted."

"That's her problem. She spoiled everyone in spira. Now when something happens they run to Yuna for help. In other words, she shouldn't have jumped in to save an enemy. Not everyone can be turned by good. Mage would understand. She was a very good person."

"But…Yunie's not Mage."

"I'm beginning to believe that she isn't anything anymore. She can't summon anything, and she's hurt."

"You played a part in that." she says tapping his arm.

"We could've ended the raid in Killika. Instead, we're running."

"It'll be ok. We just have to believe in Yuna."

"I don't believe in someone who is so useless. Right now I do not see a reason to respect her anymore."

"So…you're leaving the group?"

"No. Something weird is going on. We need to find out what."

"Right." she says with a bright smile, "So…what do we do about Spira?"

"That's something we all should think about."

Mage sits on a rock and crossed her legs. Everyone has stopped because Tidus needed a break. He sits on the ground trying to catch his breath.

"Man, we are gonna miss them at this rate." Jecht says out holding his forehead.

"Maybe we can move on ahead." Mage says moving her hair out of her face. 

"Sad. I would expect this from Mage." Auron says. 

Mage frowns. Braska laughs and pats her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. He means to insult Tidus. Not you." 

She stands up and draws her sword.

"I'm moving on." she says.

"I agree." Jecht says.

Braska stares at Auron.

"I don't think we should split up." he says.

"What choice do we have?" Auron asks.

"I'm fine." Tidus says annoyed.

He gets up and grabs his blade. Everyone goes ahead of him. 

"I've been thinking…" Mae says, "Why is he faulting and we are not?"

"Beats me." Jecht says shrugging.

"Perhaps his memories are fading." Braska says.

"What?" Auron asks.

"Usually only people who are thought of remembered remain in the Farplane. When the memories are forgotten they do not exist in the Farplane. Just as if you were killed here."

Mage thinks for second then a bright smile comes on her face.

"The reason why I have so much energy is because…"  
"Because someone is thinking of you or remembers you well."

Jecht laughs. 

"Well Auron, maybe someone up there is thinking of us too huh?"

Tidus looks away heartbroken.

(Yuna…how…could you…forget me!) he thinks to himself. 

A soft hand touches his shoulder breaking his chain of thought. Mage looks him in the eye.

"Whe we get back to Spira you can hit whoever it is that is forgetting about you." she says cheerfully.

"I don't care anymore." he says turning away.

Auron turns to Braska.

"So…this means that someone is also thinking of this summoner and this spirited one?"

"Exactly."

"Lets go. The more fiends we have to kill the closer we are to the core." he says.

'True." Braska says. 

They sprint ahead. As they move forward the fiends become more scarce. The trees are taller and the view seems to be dim. Tidus doesn't let everyone know that his chest feels like something is crushing it so he can't breath. They all of a sudden hear laughter. It sounds like an arrogant teenager. Tidus looks u and notices that everyone is ready to fight. He gasps as he spots Seymour starring at everyone.

"Seymour!" he yells rushing up beside everyone.

"Seymour?" Braska asks confused.

"Yes, the man that killed lord Jyscle." Auron says.

"What?!" Braska says furious. 

"Hm hm hm hm hm hm. That is correct. Sir Auron…we meet again."

"This time it will be your last."

He looks over at Mage.

"Ah…lady Yuna. Too bad you had to die."

"What?!" Mage says confused.

"We can rule the under world together. Come with me." 

"You're nuts." Mage says guarding. "By the way…I'm Mage not Yuna."

"Either way…you will have to defeat my champion if you want to proceed. Can't have you interfering with our plan. Come…Rika!"

A young girl appears in front of him. She has short hair, a white cut off shirt, and black shorts. Once of her arms seemed to made of Machina. She smiles and draws a small hammer. Mage steps up.

"Humph…I've been dieing for a good fight. I'll have you done in no time." she says.

Auron steps in front of her.

"We fight her together."

She frowns.

"There's no need. I can take her out by myself. You guys go after that Seymour guy. I'll catch up."

Braska watches to see what happens.

"You can't under-estimate the enemy because their size."

"I'm not. Now get going before he gets away."

Tidus listens and becomes infuriated. 

(Tidus: Auron always thinks he knows best. Well, I'll show him. I won't let Seymour get back to spira!) he thinks stepping up. He looks at Mage and grins. 

"Ok…you take care of her and we'll get that Seymour." he says looking to Jecht, "Right dad?"

Jecht looks to Auron then to Braska. Auron looks upset and Braska looks clueless.

"Right." he says grabbing his blade and darting for Seymour. 

Tidus follows him and Braska goes after them. Auron narrows his gaze at Mage. Then he follows after Braska and the others. (She may look like Yuna, but she's a lot more stubborn.) he thinks. She stares at Rika and gets ready to fight.

"Well, champion are you ready to prove yourself?"

"Humph." Rika says charging. 

Mage smiles.

"That is so typical of an attack." she says readying her sword. 

Rika leaps into the air and the attempts a dropkick. Mage slashes her leg off and dodges her body. She then stares as Rika as she lands hard on her side. She looks up at Mage angry. Then all of a sudden her leg slides towards her and reattaches itself to her body. Mage gasps shocked. She stares at Mage and grins. Then she powers up a heavy ball of energy. 

"Take this." she says aiming at Mage. "Omega Flare!"

The blast hits Mage knocking her a few feet away. She lands hard on her back and stops herself from sliding. 

"That's a strong blast, but it's not gonna stop me." she says getting up.

"You will die and then the others will die too."

"Not if I can't do anything about it!" Mage says charging her.

Rika runs in as well. Mage swings and she counters by dodging the blade and kicking Mage in the stomach. The kick does medium damage and sends Mage to one knee. Rika stands over her smiling.

"Ready to die?" she asks not noticing the black orb coming from Mage's hand. 

She then quickly spins and covers Rika in a dark dragon buster. She flies into an abandoned building like structure. She looks at as Mage stands strong and ready for more. 

(She's not hurt at all. What's wrong? I thought I was the strongest in this world.) she thinks. She then stands up and frowns. 

"You think you're tough? Well I got something for you." she says casting mighty guard. 

Mage smiles.

"That won't save you." she says enchanting her sword.

They charge each other again. Rika swings and Mage dodges cutting her in the arm. Her mighty guard is dispelled. She holds her bleeding arm looking alarmed. 

"What?!"

"That's right. I enchanted my sword with dispel. It comes in handy sometime." she says smiling. 

Rika frowns. Mage powers up and grins.

"This is a move a very special person taught me." she says. "And I really thank him for this attack."

Rika guards ready. 

"Hah!" Mage yells sending a charge of lightening at her. 

The lightening field hits Rika stunning her. 

"Anima come for the 'Ultimate Oblivion'!" she yells. 

Anima comes out of the ground and she sits on its shoulder crossing her legs. Then she laughs as Rika stares completely intimidated. 

"Here it comes…'Ultimate Oblivion'" 

Anima hits her with Pain causing her to fall hard. Then he sucks her underground where his other half breaks through the chains. Mage appears on the other side of her with her sword ready. Anima begins beating her rapidly. Each hit doing intense damage. After his last hit he shoots ultima at Mage. Mage catches the spell absorbing it into her sword. The dragon head on her sword turns black and she charges in slashing Rika for more heavy damage. Then she dashes through her in a flash and a large Ultima explosion occurs on Rika causing her to scream out loud. She falls from above hitting the ground motionless. Mage lands on Anima's shoulder with her legs crossed.

"Humph…looks like you weren't ready." she says dismissing Anima.

Smoke is coming from Rika's motionless body. Mage goes over to her body to investigate. 

(I wonder how she got her leg to come back together?) she thinks. She finds an ID card in her back pocket. It reads. Yuffie with a picture of her on the left side. The right side is torn off.

(So this girl's name really isn't Rika…it's Yuffie…I wonder if she's human?)

She turns her over on her back and spots the hole in her stomach from the stab womb. (She's a…human?!) she says to herself as she feels her heartbeat. It's very faint and seems to be getting slower and slower. She heals her but not enough to bring her back to consciousness. She then stands up and leaves her on the ground unconscious. 

Buddy stops by Guadosalam and drops LeBlance off at her home then he stops in Besaid so that Yuna can consult with her old team. Kimari, Wakka, Lulu, Rikku and Yuna all sit inside of Wakka's house as the other play with Vadina outside. 

"Yuna…you look…drained." Lulu says feeling her forehead. "What happened to you?"

"Uh…" Yuna says nervous. 

She doesn't want Lulu to scold Jin for her being weak but there's no way she could get a lie past Lulu. (Never hurts to try.) she thinks.

"Well…there were a lot of life draining fiends raiding Killika. We had to retreat." she says lowering her head. 

Lulu looks at her with a narrow gaze. 

"You are lying." she says.

"Come on. Give her a break ya? She had to deal with a lot of fiends."

"Is this true…Rikku?" Lulu asks looking at her evilly. 

Rikku begins to sweat heavily.

"Uh…uh…we really have to figure out what to do about all of these fiends." she says flopping to the floor and leaning back on her hands.

Lulu eyes her and she feels a chill down her back. 

"Ok…ok…Yunie kind of caused a scene to save a friend of ours and it upset Jin. He sort of chewed her up about it and she's been sad ever sense.

"Ah…" Lulu says looking at Yuna. 

Yuna turns away and closes her eyes.

"It's my fault." she says. "I shouldn't be so…weak…"

"He said that?" Wakka asks.

"Yeah. He said some other things too. They were really bad." Rikku says.

Lulu stands up and walks outside. Wakka holds his forehead. 

"You really did it now. She's gonna tear him up." he says. 

Yuna glares at Rikku. 

"Sometimes you really need to keep your mouth shut!" she says storming out. 

Rikku looks at Wakka confused. He just shrugs. 

Outside Vadina tosses a blitz ball at Jin. Lulu knocks it away before it gets to him. 

"Vadina…why don't you go with your father to the beach and learn a few blitz ball tricks?" she asks. 

Jin looks at her confused. 

"Ok." he says running after Wakka. 

Lulu then turns to Jin.

"We have to talk." she says. 

"That really isn't necessary." Yuna says stepping up to them.

Lulu looks at her face and realizes that she's angry.

"We have a bigger issue to worry about."

"Like?" Lulu asks.

"Like where all of these fiends are coming from." she says.

Jin frowns. 

"Isn't it obvious where they are coming from? Paine is doing this. Why can't you face that fact?"

"I don't know…but I won't except that."

"Then we're stuck here. Cause until you do, you will die trying to save spira." he says heading towards the end of town. 

"This situation really is getting out of hand. We just got word from Kimari that the Ronso have fled from Mount Gagazet. The fiends were to strong to hold back they reside there as well." she says pushing one of her braids back behind her. 

"This is getting serious." Yuna says looking away. 

Serphiff frowns and looks to Jin. He then stops him.

"You can't leave now. Sense everyone's here we should discuss what we should do." he says. 

Jin stares at him and then turns.

"Very well." he says heading back towards the others. 

Wakka comes up to them with Vadina in his arm. 

"So…we gonna talk about this situation ya? Why not come in and sit down? It's not much but it beats this dirt and mud."

Everyone goes into the hut and takes a seat somewhere. Jin leans against the wall folding his arms. 

"Large fiends attack Kimari and his tribe while on mountain. We had no choice. Kimari had to flee. Strange woman attacked with fiends. She looks a lot like Yuna's friend from before."

Yuna looks away sad. 

"I don't believe that Paine would do a thing like that."

"Well she did." Jin says angrily. "And as long you don't believe you might as well stay here and let us take care to the problem. Because you will surely die. We're your friends correct. However…we are not your guardians." he says heading towards the outside of town. 

Lulu doesn't say a word as she understands why he is so upset. Yuna stares at his back trying her best not to cry. 

"Perhaps…you should stay. Maybe we could come up with a way to save Spira again." Lulu suggests. 

"He's…changed for some reason." Yuna says.

"I'll go talk to him. You go in and get something to eat." she says walking off towards him. 

Everyone else goes inside. Jin heads to the waterfalls and takes a seat on the bridge. He notices Lulu heading his way and he sighs. She sits down next to him.

"She's very stubborn isn't she?"

"I don't think that's the word for it."

"She just likes to do her own thing sometimes. You can't force her to believe something else."

"I'm not trying to force her. It's obvious that Paine is behind most of this." 

"You said most of this. So you too think that there's another person involved."

"Yes…but I can't put my finger on who." 

"Then why not help her think of who that person is?"

"Because she's not worried about that. She never looks at the big picture. It's always the one that matters to her."

Lulu laughs. 

"You should've seen her a few years ago. She always wondered what others would think of her. You know, right now she's crying her eyes out I bet."

"She has no reason to cry."

"You really are clueless aren't you?"

"Me?"

"You can't tell?"

"Tell what?"

"She has put her lost friend in the past and has begun to think on the present. As in…right now. As in YOU."

He looks at her not believing her story one bit. 

"That's ridiculous. She knows that I love Mage."

"You can't always dwell on the memories. When there is no way to reach them. Really…have you found a way to reach her?"

He looks away.

"Not really." 

"You know, Yuna says that you've changed and it didn't sound like it was for the better. What happened?"

He laughs. 

"Strange…when we first met we figured out that both of us lost someone special and made vows to find a way to get them back. Even though we knew that there wouldn't be a way to do it, it made us both feel better about our losses. I was carefree…then I saw the sphere that had trouble in the Farplane. I figured that there had to be some way to connect from this world to that one because the spheres contained recordings from the Farplane. I that's when we both made it up in our heads that there really was a way to get them back. We just had to figure out how we were going to do it. But it seems that she has ran away from that. Like it's her duty to save spira from fiends."

"If she doesn't do it, who else will?"

"There are lots of people. Look at the Youth league. They have Nooj and LeBlance. Then there's Baralai and Gippal. All of them are capable of doing it by themselves. We should be focusing on the big picture."

"Then why don't you focus on the big picture?"

He looks at her confused. 

"Paine, wasn't with you all for almost a year?"

"She's known Yuna for quite some time now. I've known her for almost a year."

"Did she seem like the type of person that would hurt people?"

"She'd mention it but she'd never really do anything."

"Then you know that this isn't her?"

"Yeah. That's my point. It has to be an fake that just looks like her and Yuna's trying to risk her own life to save her."

"Or…Paine could've been possessed…" 

Jin stares forward as he never thought of the idea. 

"Did you ever think of that?"

"Possessed? There are no fiends here that can possess people." he says trying to counter the thought.

"Who says that their has to be a fiend? I can possess someone if I want."

"What?"

"Sure…all you need is the magic. Maybe a sorcerer of some kind?"

He thinks to himself ashamed. He'd never thought of her being possessed. But there's no one that he could think of that would do it. Raiden came to mind but she attacked him too so it had to be someone bigger than him. 

"I never thought…"

"It's ok. Sometimes things just rush by us." she says. 

He takes a big sigh and then smiles.

"Why'd you have to be married?" he asked with rhetorical intent. 

She laughs. 

"Because I am very lucky. Now how about we go back to the village and get something to eat?"

"Fine by me." he says standing up. 

Then he helps her up to her feet. 

Rikku sits down and grabs a piece of meat from the main bowl. Juunana looks at her upset. 

"What?" she asks.

"What kind of meat is this?" he asks. 

Wakka laughs.

"What's wrong? Never had a good chocobo leg before? They're the best ya?"

"You said it." Rikku says biting into the meat. 

"You guys seem to be having fun." Paine says stepping into the door way smiling. 

Everyone gets up to fight. But then they freeze as she holds her blade up to Vidina's neck. Rikku gasps but noticed that a tear was on Paine's cheek. Wakka gets up and frowns.

"Hey…leave the boy out of this ya!" he yells.

"If anyone moves he'll be half a boy." she says.

"You just don't quit do you?" Serphiff says grabbing his weapons. 

"I said don't move." Paine demands moving the blade closer.

(Yuna: I won't except you being evil. I just won't.) she thinks to herself. 

She then starts for Paine.

"This isn't you Paine. What's wrong with you?!" she yells.

"Watch out!" Serphiff yells as if he could read Paine's mind. 

She thrusts her sword out and stabs Yuna right in the chest. She cries out in pain and then passes out as her body hangs from the blade.

"Yuna!" Wakka yells charging in. 

Paine pulls her blade out of Yuna and leaps away with Vidina in her arms. Wakka runs out after her but as soon as he steps out of the tent he spots her flying away in a small airship. 

"No!" Wakka yells running after her. 

Rikku looks outside of the tent. 

"Hey Wakka you can't leave! What about Yunie?!" 

Yuna starts coughing up blood. Serphiff holds up her head dressing the cut.

"Quickly! Go and find a doctor someone to heal her! She doesn't have that much time left!" 

She clutches Serphiff's arm with a look of fear in her eyes. Juunana starts running in circles.

"Man what do we do? What do we do?" he yells. 

"For starters how about you stop running around like a spooked bird and help me. Tie this around her waste and try to stop the bleeding." 

Rikku spots Lulu and Jin running up from a distance. She decides to meet them halfway. As Lulu approaches she knocks Rikku over and runs for the tent. She stares at Yuna who is coughing roughly trying to get air. Lulu quickly heals her but the pain is still there. She finally catches her breathe and looks around. 

"You ok?" Jin asks.

"The boy!" Serphiff says coming in. "He's gone."

Lulu stands up with a very evil look on her face.

"Vadina?! He's gone?! Where is he?!" she yells looking at Wakka. 

He lowers his head. 

"He was right in here you know…eating with us. I don't know how she got him."

"She who!" 

"Paine…" Rikku says looking away. 

"What would she want with our child!"

"Perhaps to force you into the state that you are slowly crawling into." Jin says. "You have to calm down. We can think of something."

Lulu looks at Jin then she turns to Wakka in rage. All of a sudden she slaps him hard enough to knock him into the tent. He looks up hurt.

"I don't ever want to see you again!" 

"Lu listen I…"

"Get out of my sight…" she says turning her back to him. 

He stands up and looks at everyone else. 

"Thanks a lot Yuna." he says with a low voice. 

She looks at him confused. Then he leaves the tent and runs out of the town. Lulu sits down on the bed and stares at the back of the tent as tears roll down her face. Jin stares at Yuna evilly. 

"You know…if you hadn't jumped in the way in Killika this would've never happened!" he says. 

"You can't say that for sure." Rikku says jumping up. 

Serphiff walks over to Lulu.

"I'm sorry this happened. We shouldn't have passed our problems on to you all. But we will get to the bottom of this." 

"Not alone you won't." Lulu says standing up. "I don't care if she's Yuna's friend or not. She will die!"

Yuna looks at her face. There's no changing Lulu's mind and she knows this for sure. She lowers her head. 

(Yuna: I'm sorry Paine. But there's no way to help you now. If only I knew that it wasn't really you.

Paine: Yuna! Help me! I'm…scared!)

Yuna looks up as if she woke up from a bad dream. 

"Paine's in trouble!" she says.

"She sure is." Lulu says getting up. 

She walks over to Jin and Serphiff.

"It appears you were right Jin. And you know what we must do."

"Right." he says putting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We will get him back."

Lulu smiles. 

"For some reason, I'm believing in you. Lets go."

"Hey don't forget me." Juunana says jumping up to his feet. 

"Yeah you can run around the enemy in circles and maybe confuse her." Serphiff says. 

He grins.

"That's me." Juunana says.

"Count me in." Rikku says. 

"Guys wait. Paine is in real trouble. We can't kill her. Don't you understand something has happened to her!" Yuna shouts. 

"Until we are certain we kill her." Jin says.

"Brother will not allow it without my consent." Yuna says looking firm. 

"Fine then we won't use Brother's ship." Jin says.

Yuna gasps shocked.

"Vadina did nothing to anyone and now he's in danger of losing his life. I will not let him die and I will not take Paine doing this to anyone else. She will die." Lulu says. 

"But…"

"Yuna…" Jin says cutting her off, "If you jump in the way this time…prepare to reunite with your lost love." he finishes running towards the temple. 

"Where are you going?" Lulu asks. 

"I know an Al Bhed that can lend us an air ship. Lets go."

Lulu runs off after him. Serphiff and Juunana head off as well. 

"Rikku?" Yuna asks not hiding the feeling of hurt. 

"I'm…sorry Yuna but Lulu's right. Why did Paine just take Vadina like that? He shouldn't have been in this at all." 

"Rikku it's not her. It can't be. It must be someone else."

"I can't tell but…I don't wanna be left behind. Plus…Lulu knows what she's doing right?" she says running for the others. 

Yuna looks away upset. Then she runs off after Wakka. Jin signals Nhadala in the Bikankel dessert. She is sitting down eating a sandwich when she catches the signal in the sphere. She walks over to it and smiles when she spots Jin.

"Hey there Jin. What's up?"

"I need an airship fast."

"I'll be right there. Besaid right?"

"You got it." he says giving her a thumbs up.

They all turn around and notice that Lulu is looking down. Jin touches her shoulder.

"Don't worry. We will help you get him back."

"It's not that…" she says turning away from him. 

She looks up to find Wakka staring her in the face. He is looking serious this time. 

"Lulu…I promise…on my life ya? I'll get him back for you…for ME too." he says. 

She throws herself at him and he catches her letting her head lay on his chest.

"I'm so sorry I hit you." 

Jin scratches his head. He has never seen Lulu sensitive before.

"I understand. Now lets go get him back ya?"

"Have you seen Yuna?"

"No…I saw her running past the bridges when I was sitting on the waterfall. I guess she's gone to the cave to unwind."

Mage catches up with the others as they reach what appears to be a small town. All of the building have the roofs taken off of them and there are pyre flies everywhere. 

"Where is this place?" Tidus asks. 

"I don't know…but…it doesn't seem like a good place." Braska says. 

Jecht rubs his neck as if he was bored. 

"Man…I thought these guys would put up a better fight than this." he says. 

"A better fight indeed." Yunalesca says appearing in front of them. "Braska…my dear lord Braska. If only you would've joined our side. Now you must die just like Cloud."

"NO!" Tidus yells. 

She holds cloud up by his neck clearly showing that he's dead. 

"Why?" Braska asks. "I thought you were different."

"Seymour showed me the way. The real reason for life. You should listen to him as well. Maybe your friends can tell you about his power when they are sent to the fareplane." she says laughing. 

Auron frowns and points his sword at her. 

"You will pay for this Yunalesca." 

Rika appears again. She is floating in mid air in an unconscious state. 

"You'll have to beat her first." 

Mage smiles. 

"I think I took care of her already."

"That's just with Seymour's power. Now witness my power." she says zapping Rika's body.

"That poor girl. She's being used by them." Mage says. 

"We fight." Auron says guarding.

Rika looks up at them with an evil grin. Before she could land, Auron slashes her hard sending her into a small hill. Everyone else charges Yunalesca. Rika gets up and tosses a large four bladed ninja star at them. Mage jumps over it, Auron and Jecht evade, Braska sidesteps it and Tidus is hit hard in the chest. Mage kicks her in the face and she flies into another small hill. Mage powers a Thundaga spell and fires it into the hill causing it to explode. They all stare shocked as Rika stands up unharmed.

"She is immune to magic." Yunalesca says knocking Mage away with a Blizzara. 

She hit's the ground hard. Rika charges forward and kicks Tidus hard in the stomach. He freezes up from the pain and she kicks him in the neck sending him into a large stone. Braska knocks her away with Flare. Auron strikes at her but she dodges it quickly and kicks him hard in the face. She charges Braska and is blind sided by Mage's hard blade cutting her in the side. She hit's the ground and cries out in pain. Mage stares and everything seems to get quiet. She is now able to see some of the young girl's thoughts. She has been controlled ever sense she came to the Farplane. Tidus staggers to get up. He charges Rika and hits her with a blitz ace that didn't do much damage. Jecht strikes her to the ground from behind. She lies there motionless. Yunalesca gasps. 

"Can she really be beaten…that easily." 

"That's right." Mage says. "And you are going down as well."

"Is that so?" Yunalesca asks hitting her with Helbiter. 

Mage falls to one knee as she begins to choke. Braska runs for her as he knows that Yunalesca is going to use the spell "Full Life" on her. He uses "Esuna" on Mage and Yunalesca's full life spell misses. Auron smashes Yunalesca hard dealing heavy damage. She gasps holding her cut. Mage holds her throat as she can finally breath normally again. She stands and charges a dark dragon blast that takes out ¾'s of her life. She falls to one knee and reaches out to her husband Braska. He stares at her. 

"My husband…are you going to let me die like this?"

"I am sorry, but you have lived for all of the wrong reasons. It is you that tricked me…into becoming one with that fiend Yu Yevon. And I will not forgive you for that." he says heading forward. The others stare not saying a word. 

Then they all start to follow him. He stops and turns to them.

"We must hurry. If we are to reach them before they get to spira, we can not linger too far behind." he says rushing.

"Agreed." Auron says running after him.

"Geez…can't we take a break?" Tidus says.

Jecht doesn't say anything. He just takes off after Auron and Braska. 

"You have to toughen up." Mage says smiling. 

Then she runs after the others. Tidus stares at them not moving. ( Tidus: she told me I had to toughen up…I felt…weak…helpless…I even wanted to cry…but…she reminded me so much of Yuna…and I've been through so much. I couldn't…turn back now. I had to do this…for Yuna…the others…for me.) He runs after the others. Yunalesca takes her last breath and then she vanishes from existence forever. 

Paine wakes up on a big log in the middle of a forest unknown to her. As she looks around she realizes that she has control over her body once more. (Paine: Raiden…that stupid fool…he set me up. He's planning to get rid of us all one by one. I know they will never forgive me…so I must try to stay away from them.) she thinks. 

She then hears the laughter of a child. As she looks up Vadina is hanging by his waste on a very tall branch. The fall would kill him instantly.

"What is he doing up there?" she asks herself. 

As she starts to get him down a chill comes down her spine. She turns around and finds Jin staring at her with a look that would intimidate the evilest of men. Her heart stops beating for a second as she notices that his large dragon staff is drawn. 

"You escaped with the help of quite a faithful friend last time. But this time you will pay."

"Listen Jin…"

"Don't talk. Just fight." Lulu says stepping up with her famous onion knight. 

"Lulu…please listen to me. It wasn't me! It was Raiden. He is behind all of this. He has the power to take control of your mind. You have to believe me. Would I be standing here right now trying to reason with you if I wasn't telling you the truth? Please…you have to listen to me. Please believe me."

Jin frowns.

"Wakka…" he says.

"Got it!" Wakka responds leaping into the air and cutting down Vadina.

He catches him and lands easily. Vadina laughs.

"Dad…can I we do it again?"

"Maybe some place safer ya?" he says. 

Jin raises his staff. Paine tries to step forward but a bullet hit's the ground right in front of her foot. She looks up as Serphiff is staring her down as well.

"Guys…I didn't do anything. It was Raiden the whole time."

Rikku walks up with a large grin on her face. 

"Ooh ooh let me guess. And now he's taken all of his control off of you right?" she asks. 

"Yes…" Paine says with a look of high hopes. "That's it." she says. "See? I didn't hurt Vadina at all. He's safe…" 

Lulu walks up to her with a frown on her face. She can tell that Paine has been crying and can almost feel the sorrow in her own heart. Yet she still feels anger for what happened to her son. 

"I…can not forgive you…yet. Wakka…hand me…Vadina." she says turning to Wakka.

"Everyone…listen to me please. It wasn't my fault."  
"Shut up!" Lulu demands. 

She then blasts her with thundaga sending her into a tree. She struggles to her feet. Jin charges her and Serphiff runs close behind. Paine stares at them with a hope smile.

"Please…understand…what happened…"

Jin leaps into the tree and Serphiff jumps forwards kicking her hard in the chest. The tree rocks with the force from the hit. Jin falls down the other side of the tree and twirls his staff around his waist. Then he thrusts it through the tree. Paine leaps out of the way just before the blade could hit her. Jin hits her hard with a dragon blast that knocks her a few feet. Paine staggers to one knee and stares at blood trickles from her mouth. She stands up and faces them both. 

"You two are the only ones that don't seem to get it yet do you? I was controlled." she snaps.

Lulu strikes her back down with a thunder bolt. She gets up and looks at her in pain. Jin slices the tree in half freeing his staff. Then he charges again. He swings his staff several times hitting Paine in the arms and legs. Serphiff does a series of frontward flips and then leaps over Jin's shoulders and cuts Paine in the shoulder causing her to drop sword. She looks up at the two merciless warriors. Before she could move a spiked blitz ball hits her in the side knocking her to the ground again. 

"Ah!" she screams partly in rage and partly in pain. 

She sits up and looks at them all. 

"You don't believe me do you? You don't believe that this was a serious mistake…"

Jin lifts his staff to strike when Yuna shows up in brother's large ship. 

"You will not stop this." Lulu says striking the ship down with a large bolt. 

The doors are now barred with lighting. 

"No!" Yuna shouts running into the lightening. "Lulu! You have to stop this!!! Now!" 

Jin stares at Paine. He notices all of the cuts and blood on her body yet she still refuses to defend herself. Paine closes her eyes as if to except her death. Yuna runs through the barrier taking heavy damage. Then she runs for Jin and Paine. Jin turns his back to Yuna and stares in her direction. Then he quickly spins and kicks Yuna hard in the stomach sending her halfway back to the ship. She looks up at him spitting blood. 

"Yuna!" Paine shouts. 

She tries to move but as she sits up blood spews from her mouth. She eyes Jin. 

"Listen…if you want to kill me do so…but don't hurt her with that same anger!" 

Jin thinks to himself. 

(Jin: What would Mage do?

Mage: I think that everyone deserves a benefit of a doubt. If you don't give them a benefit of a doubt…then you'll never know if what they say is true or not. Don't you think everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves?)

Jin frowns and raises his staff. Lulu looks to Vadina. She wants to tell Jin to stop but she figures it is too late now. Wakka stares speechless and Rikku is jumping up trying to decide whether or not to try and stop him. Serphiff stares at Jin as if he knows what a he is going to do. Yuna looks up at Jin. She can tell that he looks as if he's defeated even though he has won the fight. Jin thrusts his staff for plunging the ground. It just misses her face and she looks at him in thanks. Jin stares down at her with a less evil look. 

"Get up…" he says offering her a hand. 

She takes his hand and falls as soon as she gets to her feet. 

"You are tough…but still a woman at heart." he says. 

She looks at him confused. Yuna stares with a happy look. Jin looks to Lulu.

"Did I carry out my promise?" he asks. 

Lulu smiles.

"You did." she says rubbing Vadina's head. 

He just smiles not saying a word. Serphiff puts away his gun and sword and pats Jin's shoulder. 

"You have great courage. Good enough even to lead a clan of your own." he says. 

Paine smiles and then she closes her eyes. 


End file.
